Beware! Stop before you click on that facebook link
On the facebook page there are occasions on which you do see a link with your friend's photo and a caption like: "What is the original meaning of your name?" or "How would you look after 25 years?". There may be more attractive messages like "Only a genius can solve this, I got a 140 in the IQ test". You feel the immediate social obligation to try it out and announce your results to all your followers. When you click on one of the links, you see a notification that the APP requires your facebook profile and your list of friends on facebook. You pause for a moment, remain undecided and then ask yourself, "Well, what's there to lose?" and you proceed to click on the accept button. But in the backdrop there are a few things that takes place. The APP gets your name and other personal details about you plus the details of all the posts you have liked, shared or commented, with a bonus list of your friends on facebook.
Well that's routine. You may ask what is the importance of this at the moment?
Well, the answer to this is : Facebook has been accused of allowing an application to share sensitive data of its users through which Donald Trump succeeded in capturing large majority in the 2016 presidential elections.
It all started with a facebook application called "thisismydigitallife", which was supposed to be a personality quiz that was floated on facebook. The quiz were taken by several facebook users and the data from this application was captured in a huge database. The data was then fed to a computer algorithm which profiled the users with characteristics like openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness and neuroticism. A targeted messaging to vulnerable users who never knew they were targeted (they had just answered a set of questions that they would have imagined would be used against them) sealed the fate of 2016 US presidential elections.
Endnote: Be careful of facebook links. Whenever you click a link on facebook page, be sure to be logged out of the browser, so that your information remains private. Whenever you agree to share details about yourself to an application, remember that there is some ulterior motive behind it.
Well that's routine. You may ask what is the importance of this at the moment?
Well, the answer to this is : Facebook has been accused of allowing an application to share sensitive data of its users through which Donald Trump succeeded in capturing large majority in the 2016 presidential elections.
It all started with a facebook application called "thisismydigitallife", which was supposed to be a personality quiz that was floated on facebook. The quiz were taken by several facebook users and the data from this application was captured in a huge database. The data was then fed to a computer algorithm which profiled the users with characteristics like openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness and neuroticism. A targeted messaging to vulnerable users who never knew they were targeted (they had just answered a set of questions that they would have imagined would be used against them) sealed the fate of 2016 US presidential elections.
Endnote: Be careful of facebook links. Whenever you click a link on facebook page, be sure to be logged out of the browser, so that your information remains private. Whenever you agree to share details about yourself to an application, remember that there is some ulterior motive behind it.
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