Facebook Ads Could 'Out' Gay Users 196
itwbennett writes "Researchers at Microsoft Research India and the Max Planck Institute for Software Systems in Germany have written a paper showing that a users may be inadvertently revealing their sexual preference to advertisers. 'One example was an advertisement for a nursing program at a medical college in Florida, which was only shown to gay men. The researchers said that persons seeing the ad would not know that it had been exclusively aimed at them solely based on their sexuality, nor would they realize that clicking on the ad would reveal to the advertiser, by implication, their sexual preference in addition to other information they might expect to be sent, such as their IP (Internet Protocol) address.' For its part, Facebook 'downplayed the study, saying that the site does not pass any personally identifiable information back to an advertiser.'"
Cowboys fans, beware! (Score:2, Funny)
We're on to you...
Re:Rule number 1 (Score:2, Funny)
You mean your rainbow flag PNG and the photo taken on Sir Ian McKellan's lap didn't give it away? How about that status update: "You GO girl!"
Re:Rule number 1 (Score:5, Funny)
Clicking an ad turns you gay, according to TFA.
Re:Reminds me of Project Gaydar (Score:1, Funny)
Just the other day someone claiming to be straight complained, either here or on reddit, about seing facebook adds targeted for gay people.
Re:Rule number 1 (Score:2, Funny)
Clicking an ad turns you gay, according to TFA.
It's a good thing I turned off the ads here on Slashdot! One accidental click and BAM! I'm gay!
I don't think I clicked on any ads in the past....
geeze! I gotta do something about the color scheme in this office! It's just so......oh no.
Where do you specify sexual orientation on FB? (Score:2, Funny)
I just looked at my FB profile, and I don't see where they even ask for my sexual orientation. Do they infer it from people's relationship status or something?
Re:Rule number 1 (Score:3, Funny)
Clicking an ad turns you gay.
I don't think that's what it means when they say malware "installs a backdoor into your system".
YouTube thinks I'm gay (Score:1, Funny)
Probably unrelated but your youtube viewing habits may also send the advertisers (sometimes erroneous) clues on what you enjoy as evidenced by the ads you are served by the site. For some reason youtube thinks that I am gay, that I would like to study cinema and that I need to find jesus... (none of the three being true, unless allmighty google knows more about me than I do)
Re:Lesson learned from a previous incident (Score:4, Funny)
Then one day the forum upgraded their software, and due to a bug, all posts inside that anonymous forum suddenly showed all user IDs - including the old ones. That quickly turned into a sh*tstorm as people ran around screaming in panic with their underwear.
Oh, to do that with Slashdot and watch the fun.
Actually *checks the mental post history* um, never mind that.
Re:Rule number 1 (Score:3, Funny)
Rule number 2: Clicking an ad sends information you didn't know was on your facebook to your parents and your boss.
Rule number 3: Your parents and your boss are advertising for gay nurses?