Private MD News

What does your Facebook profile say about you?

Category: Sexually Transmitted Diseases

Getting to know someone can be tricky, which is why people should always be cautious with new sexual partners and use protection and STD testing services to make sure that the new special someone in their life doesn't come with a sexual infection. While it's impossible to simply look at someone and know what his or her sexual history is, a recent study has found that examining online activity may be a good way to tell a lot about person - including certain aspects about their sexuality,

Researchers from Cambridge's Psychometrics Center and Microsoft Research Cambridge have discovered that analyzing what a person "likes" on Facebook can be a good way to determine his or her age, race, IQ, drug use, political views and even sexual orientation.

What you "like" says a lot
Scientists analyzed data from over 58,000 U.S. Facebook users to come to their conclusions. Individuals provided information regarding their Facebook likes as well as completed personality quizzes. The researchers created statistical models that were designed to predict personal details using Facebook likes alone, and compared the findings to the results of the personality tests. They discovered that by simply analyzing Facebook likes, it is possible to determine male sexual orientation with an 88 percent accuracy, Furthermore, the model was also usually right when it came to determining a person's religion, relationship status and substance abuse history.

The researchers said that these findings could have a number of implications. For example, they could lead to social media websites being able to cater advertising to each individual more specifically, but these findings could also lead to serious privacy violations.

"We believe that our results, while based on Facebook likes, apply to a wider range of online behaviors." said Michal Kosinski, Operations Director at the Psychometric Center. "Similar predictions could be made from all manner of digital data, with this kind of secondary 'inference' made with remarkable accuracy - statistically predicting sensitive information people might not want revealed. Given the variety of digital traces people leave behind, it's becoming increasingly difficult for individuals to control."

Kosinski added that he is a big fan of Facebook and other forms of social media and appreciates when these websites use his public information to cater ads to him. However, he said that the problem lies when people might use Facebook likes and other innocuous information to determine a person's sexual orientation, which may lead them open to "threats to freedom or even life."

Be careful what you post
These findings should encourage people to use social media websites with caution. The Huffington Post has some suggestions for things individuals shouldn't share on their Facebook pages. For example, people should never put their home addresses on a website, so that anyone can know where they live. Also, individuals who are planning on heading off for a long trip should not share that information online, since it may encourage people to break into their home and rob them. Even if people think they know everyone who has access to their Facebook profile very well, there's no guarantee that those people aren't letting others use their computer, which is why it's so important to use caution.

Finally, any picture people put on Facebook should be something that they would be proud of their grandchildren to see, since it will remain on the internet forever. People shouldn't post pictures that could embarrass them, or may even impede their ability to get a job, since may potential employers have begun looking at these websites to help choose between equally qualified individuals.