Project ‘Gaydar’ MIT, experiment identifies which students are gay, raising questions about privacy

[Ian David]

Project ‘Gaydar’
At MIT, an experiment identifies which students are gay, raising new questions about online privacy

<snip>

Two students partnered up to take on the latest Internet fad: the online social networks that were exploding into the mainstream. With people signing up in droves to reconnect with classmates and old crushes from high school, and even becoming online “friends” with their family members, the two wondered what the online masses were unknowingly telling the world about themselves. The pair weren’t interested in the embarrassing photos or overripe profiles that attract so much consternation from parents and potential employers. Instead, they wondered whether the basic currency of interactions on a social network - the simple act of “friending” someone online - might reveal something a person might rather keep hidden.

Using data from the social network Facebook, they made a striking discovery: just by looking at a person’s online friends, they could predict whether the person was gay. They did this with a software program that looked at the gender and sexuality of a person’s friends and, using statistical analysis, made a prediction. The two students had no way of checking all of their predictions, but based on their own knowledge outside the Facebook world, their computer program appeared quite accurate for men, they said. People may be effectively “outing” themselves just by the virtual company they keep.

“When they first did it, it was absolutely striking - we said, ‘Oh my God - you can actually put some computation behind that,’ ” said Hal Abelson, a computer science professor at MIT who co-taught the course. “That pulls the rug out from a whole policy and technology perspective that the point is to give you control over your information - because you don’t have control over your information.”

The work has not been published in a scientific journal, but it provides a provocative warning note about privacy. Discussions of privacy often focus on how to best keep things secret, whether it is making sure online financial transactions are secure from intruders, or telling people to think twice before opening their lives too widely on blogs or online profiles. But this work shows that people may reveal information about themselves in another way, and without knowing they are making it public. Who we are can be revealed by, and even defined by, who our friends are: if all your friends are over 45, you’re probably not a teenager; if they all belong to a particular religion, it’s a decent bet that you do, too. The ability to connect with other people who have something in common is part of the power of social networks, but also a possible pitfall. If our friends reveal who we are, that challenges a conception of privacy built on the notion that there are things we tell, and things we don’t.

More:
http://www.boston.com/news/science/articles/2009/09/20/project_gaydar_an_mit_experiment_raises_new_questions_about_online_privacy/

[beyurslf]

1. That doesn't sound like a big surprise to me. I tell my boys all

the time that we are judged and known by the people we associate with.
It also would not always work. I went to a Christian high school and have many of those friends on facebook. I am a gay atheist and have many friends that believe that way on there too. I work at a faith based group and have those friends on there. I am liberal activist and have those friends. I don't think their program would know what to think of me. :)

[donco6]

2. But, but - gay people can HIDE their orientation!

Right?

[virgogal]

3. Is this considered eye-popping information? I would rather doubt it.

Privacy is a thing of the past.

[izquierdista]

4. Well, duh

These gnurds have been spending far too much time on the computer. They could better spend their time scraping gum off the floor of 26-100 with a nail file. Of course you can infer someone's behaviors from who their friends are. What's frightening here is that these tools have to use computers to develop gaydar rather than interpersonal communication. I suspect they developed the program to find out if any of the people they have a crush on would be of the same orientation as themselves. Not that they would act on this information, it would just be the subject of nighttime erotic fantasies. It would never occur to them to just go break the ice and strike up a conversation.

[Fumesucker]

7. I'm guessing that you aren't shy..

I'm not any more but I was horribly shy when I was younger..

People who are not shy seem to not have a clue about what a huge handicap it is in life.

[izquierdista]

10. I got over it

Even though MIT does its best to cultivate "shyness" since it makes for good study habits.

[Neecy]

5. well, gee

And this is a surprise how? Almost all of my Facebook friends are gay. So am I. Shocker, eh?

[subcomhd]

6. It took MIT and a computer program to

figure stuff out about people by looking at their facebook pages and their friends'

fascinating

[Ian David]

8. What would impress me more is if they could do this based on the contents of your iPod.

iPodGenius says, "I see you are gay. Would you like to download Diana Ross?"

[orleans]

9. lol. n/t