Two-thirds of Maltese social media users have tried to change their privacy settings to limit what strangers can see on their profiles, according to a new EU study.

Published last week, the 2015 Data Protection survey, carried out by the European Data Protection Office, found that the Maltese were the third most likely to have heightened their social media security to stop social media snoops.

While Maltese were seemingly worried with the safety of their social media profiles, with 30 per cent claiming to be “fairly concerned” that strangers could have been looking at their profile information, they did not have the same concerns about other online applications.

Some 84 per cent said they either never or only partially read privacy statements before using or downloading an online application. While this may appear high, it is actually fairly normal and falls well within the EU average.

The study even highlights the lack of awareness on this matter as an area for policy reform, especially as these statements often contain details on whether or not the application will use or distribute any of the user’s personal data.

Asked why they did not read the privacy statements, more than three-quarters of Maltese said they simply found them too long to bother with.