Facebook is a global phenomenon, almost a billion users worldwide can be connected at the click of a mouse. To differentiate ourselves from the masses, we "like" pages on the site. For example, sports-loving John would "like" the Red Sox page, while country-music-fan Sharon would "like" Kenny Chesney's fan page. These likes give our friends a sense of who we are and help us to describe who we are. However, Facebook users will notice that mysteriously relevant advertisements seem to pop up on the side of the screen while visiting the site. According to the article on Science Daily, "
New research, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows that surprisingly accurate estimates of Facebook users' race, age, IQ, sexuality, personality, substance use and political views can be inferred from automated analysis of only their Facebook Likes -- information currently publicly available by default." Companies and businesses have access to this data, and are able to advertise products and services to each person based on who they are as an individual. But this is just the beginning.
"Facebook Likes were fed into algorithms and corroborated with information from profiles and personality tests. Researchers created statistical models able to predict personal details using Facebook Likes alone.Models proved 88% accurate for determining male sexuality, 95% accurate distinguishing African-American from Caucasian American and 85% accurate differentiating Republican from Democrat. Christians and Muslims were correctly classified in 82% of cases, and good prediction accuracy was achieved for relationship status and substance abuse -- between 65 and 73%." It is unsettling to know that our Facebook likes, merely simple absent-minded Internet shenanigans, have the ability to allow companies to know who we are. I would certainly like for my Internet usage to be semi private, in terms of who can see it. This problem is especially relevant for people like me, a teenager that has grown up in a Facebook society. For years, people my age have been using Facebook- some of us began to use the site when we were around 12-13 years old. Needless to say, 13 year olds sometimes do dumb things. I know that I certainly "liked" a few things in my day that I would never "like" now. I don't want those in the hands of companies, who might then be able to sell the data to future employers and/or colleges. It all just seems like bad news waiting to happen, in my opinion.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/03/130311151110.htm
