Check How Much Facebook Knows About You

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Facebook knows all its users very well, as it had loads of information about them. Now we have a tool, thanks to the University of Cambridge, that shows the amount of information the social network has collected on us.

Facebook creates profile of its users with collected data

Facebook uses the information collected by it for building up a profile of its users, which is then used for targeting them with adverts and related content based on their likes and preferences. A free new online tool has been developed by researchers at Cambridge, and it combs through a Facebook user’s profile and replicates what the social media giant thinks of that particular user.

The tool has been named “Apply Magic Sauce,” and it starts with the gender, intelligence, political standing, sexual preference and life satisfaction of an individual user. Then it moves on to openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness and neuroticism, which together form the so-called “Big 5” personality traits. An undistorted look into a user’s personality is provided by this tool by making use of a user’s Facebook likes and comparing those with others on the social network.

Two different responses

Dr. David Stillwell, the researcher behind the test, told the DailyMail, “One of the challenges with our modern online lives is that data is being collected about us and predictions are made, but we never get to see what Facebook is doing behind the scenes.” Stillwell notes that Facebook’s algorithms are very strong as they help the platform create a picture of a user based on the information collected, which includes friends and photos.

Stillwell said he wanted to show users what predictions can be made about them by Facebook. The user will be able to see the results almost instantly after logging in via Facebook. It has been mentioned on the site that the tool only collects the user profile’s likes, and once the test is complete, it won’t retain any on the information. The amount of data that can be harvested from a social media profile is clearly indicated by Apply Magic Sauce.

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