Web users are overcoming fears of sending credit card details over the internet, but are increasingly worried about the privacy of personal information, according to research.

A survey conducted by internet polling company YouGov on behalf of consultant KPMG shows that one in four internet users worry about what is happening to their personal information after it has reached its destination.

"I think most users now accept that data is secure in transit and are quite content when they go to a new site," said James McKeogh, senior security consultant at KPMG.

"The real problem now is that, once web retailers receive the data, what are they going to do with it?

"It's not so much whether a user wants to send credit card details, but whether they want to send credit card details, name, age, address and inside leg measurement, when all they want to buy is a box of tissues."

More than one in five of the 2,076 respondents to the survey indicated that an accreditation scheme is the single most reassuring sign when they are buying online.

The most widely used web hallmark, the Which? Web Trader scheme, was shut down earlier this year, and the government backed TrustUK is trying to promote an alternative.