More than half of Facebook consumers are bearing dumping the accepted social networking site because of privacy concerns, according to the results a novel Sophos poll.

Abingdon, U.K.-based says 16% of poll respondents said have by at the present congested using Facebook because of privacy issues.

The consequences of the online poll of some 1,600 Facebook users, released this week, found that 30% are "highly likely" to give up Facebook due to privacy concerns, and another 30% said it was "possible" they would depart the site for the same reason.

In the interim, 12% of respondents said that won't leave he site and 12% said it's "not likely" that they'll give up Facebook.

"I was expectant a good amount of people to be worried about the privacy problems with Facebook based upon the characteristic users who read my blog, but to see such a large percentage saying it was "highly likely" that they would quit or that they had already left was a surprise to me," said Graham Cluley, a senior technology consultant, today.