What Facebook Quizzes Really Know About You

I came across this in Facebook. A quiz authored by the ACLU of Northern California that will give you a scare or at least make you pause before you take one of those Facebook quizzes.

You know - these are the ones that will tell you what writer you resemble, or what your mermaid name is, challenge you to try to beat your friend's score on the name the drunk celebrity quiz.

The surprise that the ACLU is trying to give you is about how much of your personal information these quizzes can access.

And it doesn't matter if your profile is "private." When you take one of those quizzes some unknown quiz developer can access almost everything in your profile. Depending on what you have there, it might mean religion, sexual orientation, political affiliation, pictures, and groups.

These quizzes also have access to most of the info on your friends' profiles, so, even if YOU avoid taking the quizzes, friends could be giving away your personal information.

So, the ACLU created a Facebook quiz that you can take that will show you just what they can see about you. It's at http://apps.facebook.com/aclunc_privacy_quiz/?ref=nf

Of course, the irony is that they are warning you about Facebook quizzes by asking you to take a Facebook quiz. As they say at the start of the quiz, "at least you know who we are and that we have a real privacy policy that we're committed to upholding. Can you say the same for every unknown author of every quiz you or your friends take?"


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