A new study from financial advisor Experian has found that businesses who are shown to take inadequate precautions safeguarding their customers' personal details can expect to suffer a heavy loss of business.

Nearly two thirds (65 per cent) of respondents said that they would never deal with a company again if it had mishandled their personal information, while more than half (52 per cent) would be so outraged by the breach of security that they would actively seek to dent the firm's reputation.

The findings reflect the grave concerns harboured by many UK consumers about the threat of identity theft, with 22 per cent of all consumers reporting that they know someone who has been a victim of the crime.

Darryl Bowman, commercial director of Experian's credit monitoring and identity fraud protection service, CreditExpert, commented: "The research shows a clear demand from consumers and employees to be put back in control of their personal information."

He pointed out that 76 per cent of consumers who had suffered a data breach would at the very least expect the guilty firm to provide them access to a credit monitoring service so they can keep track of their own personal information from that point on.