Insurer Legal & General said the industry is considering bigger insurance premiums for users of Twitter and Facebook because they are telling criminals when to target their homes.

Services such as Google Earth are also being used by potential burglars to check the addresses – and to eye up the potential value of burgling a house.

“You can tell an awful lot about a person from the visual identity of the house they live in – which is one of the reasons why Google Earth and Street View are so potentially dangerous”, a report from Legal & Child warned.

The insurance industry is monitoring the risk posed by Twitter and Facebook, and premiums may rise accordingly: “The insurance industry is aware that with increasing acceptance of social media the standard risk indicators may need to be reviewed.”