Graham Cluley, at computer security firm Sophos, said the slip-up by the website, which has more than 80 million active users, exposed some birth dates even though members had requested that the data be kept confidential.

"I was shocked to see people's full date of birth revealed, even though I knew they had their privacy set up correctly to supposedly hide the information," said Cluley.

Sophos, which contacted Facebook upon discovering the problem, warned that it is essential that surfers can trust social-networking websites to keep private information protected.

"It's especially important with information like your date of birth, which can be a golden nugget for a committed identity thief," he added.

Mr Cluley advised Facebook users to change their date of birth to a made-up date even with privacy settings activated in case this type of blunder, which has since been fixed, happens again.

"Facebook and other social-networking websites need to be more careful about protecting their members' data, or risk losing users," he said.

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