Innocent looking personality quiz fad on facebook is really a way of getting to people volunteer for

Anyone that spends any amount of time on facebook will tell you about those cute little quizzes that you can take and they'll tell you which Disney princess you are or which alien from the sci-fi thrillers. I usually don't waste time with such nonsense but as I was seeing more and more of it on my feed I became curious and then concerned. Upon trying a few I became aware that the format was vaguely familiar, so I did a little digging and found that the questions were based on the Meyers Briggs personality types. If you don't know what they are here's a link -> Myers Briggs wiki So what we have here are millions of people volunteering for a personality profile test, and totally unaware of it. I'm sure that this information is being accumulated and stored for future reference. I realize that you surrender your privacy the moment you begin to participate in social media. However, I don't think people should be voluntarily giving up personality profiles without their knowledge. Data harvesting on social media should be voluntary and consensual. The potential for abuse of this variety of information is very high. What do you think?

a reply to: amodedoma

All the Facebook "games" and quizzes are designed solely for data mining and turning a $.
Don't participate to any of them if you object to that.

a reply to: amodedoma

You're not suggesting that Social Media may contain easter eggs of data collection to fill in our cradle to grave files with more useful stuff, are ya?

Surely...they'd never stoop to using results from such things to fill in pages of blanks, as it fits...right? It would be sneaky, underhanded and devious to an extreme.

Naww.. Uncle Sam is a straight shooter. Never given to do such a thing for domestic intelligence collection.

(Hey! I really kept a straight face the whole time typing it too! ...that wasn't easy..lol)

I see lots of questionnaire type threads here as well, and don't often participate in them. That way nobody will know I'm an otherly abled vegan pagan lesbian of color.

a reply to: amodedoma
Guess they will write me up as having a multi-personality disorder, since when I do participate, I always do it more than 3 times. Each time, answering the questions differently to get different results. It is always fun to see what the opposite choices would say. What can I say...I get bored sometimes? Or at least that is the excuse my main personality gives.

a reply to: amodedoma

it amazes me what people put on face book - it truly does

they would not [ I hope ] share such information with a " guy with aclipboard " who stopped them on the street - but do it on face book

I only use it - because it gives me access to the workings of 12 clubs I am in - on a single interface - which is worth it

my profile is very sparse - and most activity is in closed groups which can only be seen by other members

yes - I know facebook mines all that data - but is the fact that I climbed at kilnsey crags last sunday really of value to anyone ?

a reply to: amodedoma

I don't visit my facebook page: does that mean I fail the test by default?

I can see why they have used this tactic, farce book is the ultimate source for some who place their ego above everything else, but it's not all about personal profiling-it's also about targeted advertising.

I had a facebook account with about a hundred people on as 'friends'. I shaved off about 50 people ... all ATSers. I got to thinking that I really don't know the people behind the names here and if they did something majorly stupid, I wouldn't want to have my name on their 'friends' list .. ya' know? Cops investigate facebook relationships now.

So ATSers ... if I shaved you off my friends list don't have hurt feelings ... m'kay?

originally posted by: FlyersFan

Cops investigate facebook relationships now.

It's not just cops, employers do the same. If your name is on a resume one of the first background checks employers do is through facebook ( i' m not lying) and If you don't meet the 'friend quota' or 'post quota' then you are not considered for the job, and it makes it especially hard if you are in Public Relations or in a similar line of work.

Luckily for me I got my employment by the traditional way-by conversation. I might not have as many 'likes' as others but I can raise a boom better than they can. The internet is not a benchmark for experience.

a reply to: amodedoma

Sad to say, I have progressed to a rather distasteful view of the data mining that goes on in Facebook and I know its not a nice way to think, but...I sort of see Facebook as social Darwinism on steroids. You said: "I don't think people should be voluntarily giving up personality profiles without their knowledge" and strictly speaking, you are correct! But truthfully, after years of warning people to be very careful with Facebook only to be roundly ignored. So many on Facebook are utterly oblivious to the dangers; they are totally unthinking. So, another truth? These people are going to be taken advantage of anyway. And there's another dynamic at work here that I think those of us over 40 forget: the youth have been propagandized and programmed to "share" their personality profiles. They've been taught to believe that if you DON'T share all there is to know about who you are and what you think and do, there's something wrong and bad about you. They have been made...STASI ready! It's their future...not mine.

a reply to: FlyersFan

I've never used facebook, but if I did I would be proud to have you delete me as a friend. What are cyber-friends for if not to commit a crime and then point to their ATS friends to say 'FlyersFan made me do it'. When I commit my crimes I will now have a piece of paper in my pocket with the cryptic words "FlyersFan ATS swiss bank account Contact for specific instructions accessory good recipes". But me committing a crime, outside of the usual, will have to wait a few years, which by then I'll have probably lost the piece of paper, so nothing to worry about." (I have friended you here, right? If not...)

a reply to: amodedoma

Which is one of the many reasons why I refuse to join Facebook, Twitter, why I have not touched MySpace in years...

This is where I am on the internet. Right here. That's enough.

Just read the OP to my wife...
She said, "that's exactly what you said"!
I've taken a few tests in my time and picked right up on these from the start.
I know when I'm being profiled, sometimes it seems like it is happening here on ATS, ala what would you do?
That could never happen here on ATS though, right?

a reply to: amodedoma

Well there's much controvery about Myers-Briggs. My personality test according to it is INTP, and I'm very close to INTJ. But in sum, people who have my personality type according to MB are not more likely to have jobs as engineers or scientists or others with seemingly likeminds. Studies have shown no link between MB personality-type and job performance in those fields for that type. Still, I must admit, when I first discovered the personality tests and read the information about INTP, I felt I was reading my life history. Of course, maybe it's a mind trick, kind of like how whne you read a fortune cookie and can think it applies to you specifically, or how a psychic can make you think they know you by pulling straws until one or the other fits your profile and you *gasp* in astonishment.

a reply to: FlyersFan

Which is precisely why I'm against removing anonymity on the internet. All it does is cause people to act too conservatively in an attempt to show false conformity and agreement. And you know how if a lie is repeated enough it's believed? Well if someone falsely conforms enough...

We'll create a society of people too afraid to break from the herd and who'll eventually hold dogmatically to it like it's a lifeline.

Just imagine if we couldn't think our own private individual thoughts because every thought was aired on the open channels. I wonder how cautious we'd be then? A lot more cautious than we're now. And I guarantee we'll find reasons to justify it. We'll discover thoughts or sequences of thoughts that're associated with crime or otherwise negative outcomes. With this thought-reading technology they'll police it out to produce a more stable productive environment. We'll be a hive if we try hard enough. We won't call it a hive. We'll call it modern society or something fancy-sounding. Upon reflection on the present-day society, futurized citizens will feel grateful they live in a more safe knowledgeable society.

a reply to: amodedoma

Yeah... sorry OP, but this is old news.

I mean first off, it's a personality test...so yes, it's natively going to use some sort of actual personality profiling just to generate a response/result. Otherwise it wouldn't matter what you selected, it would just dump a random response.

Secondly, it shouldn't really be surprising to find that the same company that hosts these quizzes, very well may be running a targeted ad campagin and thus placing more relevant ads on your page based on the data they have available about you, in hopes of you actually buying something through one of their sponsored advertisements.

This is the internet age, is all about data collection.

a reply to: amodedoma

Yeah, I've considered this one. I've got a few friends who seem to really be addicted to know just which "insert character here* from what "insert movie/tv show here* they are. It really baffles me and I can't decide if they are merely entertainment junkies or if they really have no freaking clue who they are. Like you, I got curious and took a few quizzes. My determination was pretty much the same as yours. People were willingly, through the guise of the profound knowledge of being *insert character here* from *insert tv/movie here*, actually taking personality tests and you bet that is being stored every time they share their results on facebook.

I'd say that it's most likely for the purposes of marketing automation but, in light of a recent article that I've seen in regards to Virginia medical staff receiving collected data on shopping habits and the like to "better serve their customers", I'd say that such information could have more widespread use than simple marketing automation. There could come a day where, for $3.99, a potential employer could get a full psychological profile of a prospective employee if that isn't already happening.

Well, I'll "fess up" now....I am guilty of having taken these tests, although I doubt it makes a difference on the occaisions I have partaken in this dark side activity I sign out of Facebook prior to taking the quiz and never post the result.

I'm sure they still manage to get the info on me though, my defense to all this....

I just had to know "Which villianous character are you?"

FYI, I was Voldemort!

Bitterly dissappointed, I was sure I was more Vader!

a reply to: amodedoma

So what?

I mean, seriously: so what?

Why does it matter?

Is it going to make any difference to your life or anyone else's?

originally posted by: Astyanax
a reply to: amodedoma

So what?

I mean, seriously: so what?

Why does it matter?

Is it going to make any difference to your life or anyone else's?

Why does it matter? It's an example of how people are encouraged to give up information in regards to themselves for uses that are probably not even in the user's mind. Why are you questioning the discussion of the subject anyways? Even if it has zero effect on the OP because they aren't taking them, they can still discuss their observations of what those little quizzes are and the possible ramifications or uses of the same in what is called a free exchange of ideas and information. That's what a public forum is for, is it not? To discuss ideas and exchange information...

So why are you questioning why the OP should be questioning any of it? And who knows, it might be helpful if somebody does take these quizzes frequently to consider the possibilities. Might make them think twice about taking one again and then it'd be score 1 for comprehending the many ways we give up our privacy on a daily basis. I think that is actually a pretty important subject in this world where data collection is both intensely profitable and rampant.