MADISON, Wis. -- The Dane County Sheriff's Department is warning people that revealing their holiday travel plans online make them a target for burglars.

The Christmas lights might be on, but a person's Facebook status could reveal they are away traveling for the holidays.

The Dane County Sheriff's Department said people should take care not to share too much online.

"Don't put times and dates of when you're going to be gone and away from your house because people will take advantage of that opportunity to see what's in your house and burglarize your house," said Peter Hansen, a detective with the Dane County Sheriff's Department.

But plenty of people using social networking sites like Facebook do just that, though some users said they see why it isn't a good idea.

"Then people know when you're not home, and then they can break in or scope the place out. I'm just not trusting," said Kate Duff, who said she is careful online.

Dane County deputies haven't specifically seen this kind of crime in the area, but they said it's far from out of the question.

"Nowadays, it seems like it's very easy to find out where anybody lives in this community," Hansen said.

Authorities said if people won't be home for Christmas, they should enjoy their trip and then tell their Facebook friends about it when they get back.

"You never know who may be watching, or listening, or reading the information," Hansen said.

Dane County deputies said they recently tied a string of burglaries to an announcement in the paper about a family funeral, and said the digital world is a likely next step.

A British survey found an alarmingly high proportion of people accept Facebook friend requests from people they don't really know, putting them at risk.

But there are things people can do to protect themselves. Facebook recently changed its privacy settings, and if people didn't change them away from the defaults or didn't carefully review them they might have opened their account to everyone.