Do we risk our own privacy with "likes"?

yeah, I watched about this on BBC and this is something related to sentiment tracking. They can analyze the person traits from the likes on fb

I always walk in front of Microsoft Cambridge and always wondered what they did in there, now I know. Thats actually quite fascinating, it makes sense tho, you like what you like so psychological analysis could always be preformed. In terms of privacy I wouldn't say we risk it but doing innocuous things like liking something can definitely reveal more then you think.

Also a fascinating article about twitter to: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0314085059.htm Lessons could be learnt from this article (Know your audience.)

In a word: Absolutely.

When I first saw that article yesterday my immediate response was "duh!" Then I realized that the general public is honestly clueless about this stuff.

I routinely have lightbulbs come on about people based on what they have posted, shared or liked on fb.

My rule of thumb for the last 15 years has been extreme caution. I'm very careful about what I say in email, on message boards and in any other medium that could involve someone other than me seeing what I said or did. I also stop and consider potential implications before even clicking a "like" button.

Paranoid? Maybe. Part of "the more you know" conundrum I guess.

i feel left out again

i do not have facebook or twitter

maybe i am too private

It's why I don't ever use the like button on Facebook except on my children's photos. So they can glean that I "like" my children and that I'm a mother if they can draw that conclusion from my account, although they are connected to me as my children, but as Facebook friends.

Hey Alexa: Social Media Marketing Forum
Facebook Forum ^^^^^^ :p

I did not realize fb was doing this. I don't hit the like button all the time, though it looks like it might be a good idea to do it less.

You can see what your "Likes" reveal about you here. It is very cool.

YouAreWhatYouLike

Uh-Oh, I better go and change my name(on Facebook) then before I get a visit from Will Smith

They probably track your traits with alot more than just your likes. They also use programs to watch what you write about, what you share, who you know, the pictures you take etc.

The fact of the matter is that there really is no "privacy" anymore. Not just online. When I go to the DMV they scan my license and know what vehicle I drive.

When I recently received an auto insurance quote all I had to do was put in my name and zip code and up pops my vehicle.

Unless you live under a rock and never venture out, then your info. is out there and it's all inter-connected and becoming a tighter and tighter loop every day.

Mail order companies sent out surveys in the 19th century. The more you know about your customers/potential customers the more profit you will make. Of course companies who's sole purpose is to make money are going to collect, use and disseminate as much information as they can collect.

I really don't see any way around it. It's the world we live in.

I try to use it to my advantage as much as possible.

Like my buddy Kevin used to always say,"It's a fixed game, but it's the only one in town."

We risk enough being connected to the internet, period.

If anyone tracks my FB likes they'll discover I like puppies. Now I'm worried the whole world will find out!

Surely I am not the only one who buys data from Acxiom, DMG, and ChoicePoint??

It's not only the Internet, there is a whole Universe of data mining out there...
What people "Like" online and how long they look at any given page, it's all
just the tip of the iceberg.

Yep, what John above said. It's an old military intel trick to give them too much info to wade through. Once in a while I like stuff I don't really like and share stuff that I delete soon after. I change pictures of myself like crazy and post a whole bunch of nonsense.

After you build up enough garbage, the people that were interested in you, are no longer interested in you. They know that the data has been corrupted by too much garbage.

The people and software that study the massive patterns will view you as unpredictable and stop counting you.

You can go back to your real likes, shares, and postings after a period of garbage. Your friends that you communicate with regularly begin to see your true patterns and thoughts come through.

I can tell when I have them confused because their ads in the sidebar start offering me a mixed bag of stuff that is not targeted correctly for me.

It might be extreme for some, but I don't have to do as much hiding and worrying.

Or maybe my method doesn't work with Facebook. (shrugs) Only time will tell and when I start seeing the black helicopters flying around my house it might be an indication that my evil plan didn't work lol

p.s. yeah I know I basically said what John said but I haven't been here in a while and I felt like I wanted to be expressive :p

As far as likes, I'm not really concerned. I'm a strongly opinionated wench and anyone who dares come near me will figure out my disposition soon enough. There is something that bothers me to no end though - and that's this type of "following":

I was in the WF once in the OT (imagine that), and we were discussing authors. I mentioned my favorite author is Kurt Vonnegut (did you get that down, spy of whatever nature you are reading this). A few minutes later I went to facebook and there on my sidebar was an ad for books by...you guessed it, Kurt Vonnegut. It was the first time I had ever seen an ad for books on my FB page. I don't ever remember discussing any books on that page up to that time.

I immediately went and got the Better Privacy pluggin for my FF and I run it every time I close down FB.

As said by someone in a previous post - most people do not understand the extent to which our data is being recorded. Online, on phones, via credit and debit cards, you name it - simply put, we're being watched.

As has been said already, I think you pretty much give up your privacy as soon as you start using the Internet. Having said that, how much privacy does any one of us really have these days, even if we don't use the Internet? For those of us in the UK even the likes of Tesco record what purchases we make every time they scan our Clubcard so that they can, among other things, send us vouchers and offers tailored to our buying habits

Every click of a mouse leaves a breadcrumb. We're being tracked with everything we do online, not just FB likes. Have any of you tried the Firefox addon that shows you all the third party websites that track your every movement online?

Excerpt:
Collusion is an experimental add-on for Firefox and allows you to see all the third parties that are tracking your movements across the Web. It will show, in real time, how that data creates a spider-web of interaction between companies and other trackers.

You can test the demo for yourself here..
Mozilla

On the other hand... we can all mess up their careful, smart-ass research, by liking lots of things we don't really like