Facebook users unwittingly revealing intimate secrets, study finds | Technology | The Guardian
The researchers used computer software to predict personality traits, but said the same information could be collected by anyone with training in data analysis. They were able to draw "surprisingly accurate" findings about people by aggregating swaths of seemingly innocuous "likes", such as TV shows and movies.
They said they were able to predict whether men were homosexual with 88% accuracy by their likes of Facebook pages such as "Human Rights Campaign" and "Wicked the Musical" – even if those users had not explicitly shared their sexuality on the site. Fewer than 5% of the homosexual participants in the study clicked obvious Likes, such as "Gay Marriage", researchers said.