http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2009-09/gaydar-algorithm-outs-facebook-users
A pair of MIT students claim that they have created an algorithm that outs gay
members of Facebook by analyzing the sexual orientations of their networks of
friends.
The students first analyzed the networks of people who publicized their sexual
orientation on Facebook. Turns out that statistically speaking, gay men have
more gay friends than straight guys do. So then, they used an algorithm to run
the stats on men who kept mum about their sexual orientation on the site. Their
computer program was able to correctly identify 10 men whom the students
personally knew to be gay in the real world but who hadn't shared that fact on
Facebook. (The algorithm didn't work as well with women or with bisexual
Facebookers.)
[...]
It'd be interesting if it's possible to make similar observations without
seeing
the whole map of the network, but only of the particular person. Regardless,
this is yet another reason to dislike WoT.
- Volodya
--
http://freedom.libsyn.com/ Echo of Freedom, Radical Podcast
http://www.freedomporn.org/ Freedom Porn, anarchist and activist smut
"None of us are free until all of us are free." ~ Mihail Bakunin
