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SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2009
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18

Facebook Friend List Can Indicate Sexuality: Study

MIT students identified gay men using sexuality of online friends

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(Newser) – Students at MIT designed a program that allowed them to identify gay men using their Facebook friends' sexual preferences, and the results are sparking debate about online privacy, the Boston Globe reports. The "Gaydar" project looked at the “interested in” field and tabulated the number of gay friends for males who did not disclose their sexuality. Though ethical considerations prevented full verification, the program was correct for every individual whose sexual orientation the students knew independently.

"This isn’t specific to Facebook and is entirely possible in the real world as well," a Facebook rep points out. Though the student project was just a pilot study, it exposes an interesting dimension of the debate over online privacy. Social networking programs provide users with controls on the personal information—but how can users ensure the privacy of information they don’t realize they are sharing?

Same-sex couple Amber Weiss and Sharon Papo hold hands as they get married at San Francisco City Hall June 17, 2008 in San Francisco, California.
Same-sex couple Amber Weiss and Sharon Papo hold hands as they get married at San Francisco City Hall June 17, 2008 in San Francisco, California.   (Getty Images)
Same-sex couple John Lewis (L) and Stuart Gaffney hold hands as they arrive at the California Supreme Court to await a decision to overturn the ban on same-sex marriage May 15, 2008, in California.
Same-sex couple John Lewis (L) and Stuart Gaffney hold hands as they arrive at the California Supreme Court to await a decision to overturn the ban on same-sex marriage May 15, 2008, in California.   (Getty Images)
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When they first did it, it was absolutely striking - we said, ‘Oh my God - you can actually put some computation behind that.’
- Hal Abelson, computer-science professor, MIT

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18 comments
VIEWING:
 
Marck
Sep 21, 09 2:57 PM CDT
And this matters ... why? Reply
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IN RESPONSE:
dontlikeyou
Sep 22, 09 2:33 PM CDT
Ummmm.... because of privacy rights you idiot. Did you even read the story? Geeez.
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0
Reader64481089
Sep 21, 09 2:58 PM CDT
Here is a question I myself see as pertinent, because someone can do a thing does that mean we should do a thing? Employers can use this to discriminate as well as many others so perhaps locking up the key factors they use to indicate sexual preference need to be blocked from just this type of exploitation. If a person wants the world to know their sexual preference then it should be up to that individual and not some snoop with a program and slick algorithm Reply
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Unaffiliated
Sep 21, 09 3:04 PM CDT
In a courtroom, such evidence is referred to as hearsay. Having a bunch of gay friends does not indicate one is gay. Reply
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+2
IN RESPONSE:
Unaffiliated
Sep 21, 09 3:20 PM CDT
OK, maybe it's not hearsay. Conjecture is probably the better legal definition. I'm no lawyer...
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+1

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