Can Any Bit of Information on the Internet Endanger Your Privacy?

It’s no secret that we reveal a little bit too much about ourselves on the internet, but our privacy is safe as long as we avoid giving out our address, phone number, and Social Security number, right? Not quite. It turns out that using all of the other seemingly trivial information we put out there about ourselves can make it pretty easy to figure out a lot personal information from the harmless information we put out there. Think of it as profiling your Facebook profile.

For example, two students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, were able to predict with 78% accuracy whether a Facebook profile belonged to a gay male, by using only profile information and links to gay friends.

Here’s an even scarier example: Last year, two researchers from Carnegie Mellon University reported that they could predict the full, nine-digit Social Security numbers of 8.5% of people born in the U.S. from 1989 to 2003. That’s about five million people. Knowing that the first three digits are assigned by location, the remaining six can be figured out through projections using public data.

Luckily, all of this data mining is in the hands of university researchers, not identity thieves. But the risk potential is enough to leave one feeling uneasy.

The full story at the New York Times. Photo by robleto.

Tagged as: internet-safety, technology