Facebook has said it will not provide identity fraud protection for the victims of its latest data breach.

On Friday it revealed 14 million users had highly personal information stolen by hackers.

It included search history, location data and information about relationships, religion and more.

However, unlike other major hacks involving big companies, Facebook said it had no plans to provide protection services for concerned users.

One analyst told the BBC the decision was "unconscionable".

"This kind of information could help thieves create social engineering-based theft programmes, preying on the Facebook hack victims," said Patrick Moorhead, from Moor Insights and Strategy.

Protection

For the most severely impacted users - a group of around 14 million, Facebook said - the stolen data included "username, gender, locale/language, relationship status, religion, hometown, self-reported current city, birthdate, device types used to access Facebook, education, work, the last 10 places they checked into or were tagged in, website, people or pages they follow, and the 15 most recent searches".

Typically, companies affected by large data breaches - such as Target, in 2013 - provide access to credit protection agencies and other methods to lower the risk of identity theft. Other hacked companies, such as on the Playstation Network, and credit monitoring agency Equifax, offered similar solutions.

A Facebook spokeswoman told the BBC it would not be taking this step "at this time". Users would instead be directed to the website's help section.

"The resources we are pointing people toward are based on the actual types of data accessed - including the steps they can take to help protect themselves from suspicious emails, text messages, or calls," the spokeswoman said.

She would not say if the help pages in question had been updated since the company discovered the recent breach. (BBC)

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