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Facebook Ads Could 'Out' Gay Users

Posted by timothy on from the i'll-out-gay-you dept.

itwbennett writes "Researchers at Microsoft Research India and the Max Planck Institute for Software Systems in Germany have written a paper showing that a users may be inadvertently revealing their sexual preference to advertisers. 'One example was an advertisement for a nursing program at a medical college in Florida, which was only shown to gay men. The researchers said that persons seeing the ad would not know that it had been exclusively aimed at them solely based on their sexuality, nor would they realize that clicking on the ad would reveal to the advertiser, by implication, their sexual preference in addition to other information they might expect to be sent, such as their IP (Internet Protocol) address.' For its part, Facebook 'downplayed the study, saying that the site does not pass any personally identifiable information back to an advertiser.'"

6 of 196 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Rule number 1 by Dunbal · · Score: 4, Funny

    Clicking an ad turns you gay, according to TFA.

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    Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
  2. Re:Rule number 1 by AnonymousClown · · Score: 2, Funny

    Clicking an ad turns you gay, according to TFA.

    It's a good thing I turned off the ads here on Slashdot! One accidental click and BAM! I'm gay!

    I don't think I clicked on any ads in the past....

    geeze! I gotta do something about the color scheme in this office! It's just so......oh no.

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    July 4, 1776 - September 11, 2001

  3. Where do you specify sexual orientation on FB? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    I just looked at my FB profile, and I don't see where they even ask for my sexual orientation. Do they infer it from people's relationship status or something?

  4. Re:Rule number 1 by kenj0418 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Clicking an ad turns you gay.

    I don't think that's what it means when they say malware "installs a backdoor into your system".

  5. Re:Lesson learned from a previous incident by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 3, Funny

    Then one day the forum upgraded their software, and due to a bug, all posts inside that anonymous forum suddenly showed all user IDs - including the old ones. That quickly turned into a sh*tstorm as people ran around screaming in panic with their underwear.

    Oh, to do that with Slashdot and watch the fun.

    Actually *checks the mental post history* um, never mind that.

  6. Re:Rule number 1 by fractoid · · Score: 2, Funny

    Rule number 2: Clicking an ad sends information you didn't know was on your facebook to your parents and your boss.

    Rule number 3: Your parents and your boss are advertising for gay nurses?

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