According to the findings of a recent Sophos survey, nearly sixty percent of the people surveyed revealed that they are planning to quit the privacy issues-plagued social networking site Facebook. The poll results, discussed by Senior Technology Consultant Graham Cluley on May 19, clearly indicate the high level of public dissatisfaction with Facebook's contentious privacy policies.

As per the poll, which surveyed 1,600 people, at least 60 percent respondents said it is either "highly likely" or "possible" that they intend leaving Facebook because of concerns over privacy.

Though already 16 percent of the respondents confirmed that they had already left the social network, 24 percent of them said they would either not leave the site or it is "not likely" that they would quit.

Commenting on the findings, Gartner analyst Avivah Litan said: "I'm sure users are concerned but I doubt 60 percent would leave Facebook at this point. Nonetheless, this survey clearly indicates that Facebook has a major PR problem that is well-deserved. If they don't move quickly and more proactively to improve their privacy practices, they will start seeing users depart and their customer base erode."

Litan further added that the chief concern for the businesses is that extensive use of social networks by their employees can result in low productivity; and can lead to reputation damage, brand degradation, leakage of sensitive information, as well as nondisclosure violations.