Slashdot Mirror


Facebook Knows Your Political Preferences (businessinsider.com)

Facebook knows a lot more about its users than they think. For instance, the New York Times reports, the company is categorizing its users as liberal, conservative, or moderate. These details are valuable for advertisers and campaign managers, especially ahead of the election season. From a BusinessInsider report: For some, Facebook is able to come to conclusions about your political leanings easily, if you mention a political party on your page. For those that are less open about politics on social media, Facebook makes assumptions based on pages you like. As The New York Times explained, if you like Ben and Jerry's Facebook page and most of the other people that like that page identify as liberal, Facebook might assume you too are liberal.

17 of 183 comments (clear)

  1. I wonder how much Facebook knows... by Zombie+Ryushu · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I wonder how much Facebook knows... about it's non-Users.

    1. Re:I wonder how much Facebook knows... by SeaFox · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I wonder how much Facebook knows... about it's non-Users.

      I'm sure Facebook doesn't have any "non-users" in its mind.
      You're either a willing (registered) user or an unwilling (shadow profile) one.

  2. Good luck by nwaack · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'm a fiscally conservative, social moderate who hates Obama, has multiple openly gay friends, and generally votes libertarian when possible. Good luck categorizing that! Maybe that's why I usually just see ads for "Women get it free" on the rare occasion that I'm on the site.

    1. Re:Good luck by bondsbw · · Score: 2

      Then vote for Gary Johnson.

      Even if you aren't fiscally conservative or socially inclusive, vote for Gary Johnson. Trump and Hillary are terrible candidates and a vote for Johnson can help him get in the debates and bring sanity to this circus. (I'm not against Stein, but I'd prefer at least one third-party candidate to gain enough strength to get a few electoral votes.)

      --
      All my liberal friends think I'm a conservative, all my conservative friends think I'm a liberal.
    2. Re:Good luck by Gr8Apes · · Score: 2

      The Republicans of the 80s and even 90s are nothing like the party of today. Somewhere along the lines it was hijacked by religious nutjobs.

      True, but even the Republicans of the 80s (Reagan #1) were not fiscal conservatives, no matter what their lips were spouting. The closest we got to a balanced budget since 1980 was under Clinton's terms, whether by luck or happenstance, who knows.

      --
      The cesspool just got a check and balance.
    3. Re:Good luck by SeattleLawGuy · · Score: 2

      He seems 'ok'. Except for my one issue. TPP. I will not vote for anyone who considers that a good idea.

      Leaving the Gary Johnson question aside, voting for anyone on the basis of one idea is a mistake. Real life is messy and complicated and many more ideas than one are at stake in an election. The fact that people make the mistake of voting on the basis of one idea is exactly what has let wedge-issue-driven politics become dominant, and that in turn means that whoever is in power can do almost whatever they want on *every* other issue in government, no matter how absurd or foolish or childish, because people will vote based on the one issue.

      --
      Real lawyers write in C++
  3. Correction by HaaPoo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Facebook THINKS it Knows Your Political Preferences , i can promise you it is getting it wrong for my preference.

    1. Re:Correction by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Congratulations, you're a statistical outlier!

      Here's a star for you, you special snowflake! *

  4. Of course by 31415926535897 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    These days, your political preference is easier to tell than your gender. That's not even factoring into account that they seem to categorize politics into three buckets and gender into over 70.

  5. no they don't! by sittingnut · · Score: 3, Interesting

    1/
    since i have not used or logged in to my facebook account,(which is in my real but very common name that many others share) after initial signing up, and since i have variety of tracking blockers which do block facebook trackers in other websites, they have no data.
    only people trapped in facebook's walled garden can think it is all that powerful.

    more difficult to avoid the reach of that other ad pusher google.

    2/
    they are way too confident in their algorithms that categorize users. i have seen enough wrong headed google ads/recommendations/etc to know that they have a wrong idea about my preferences on many things.

  6. Can I see? by AK+Marc · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'd like to see what they say about me. I bash both parties all the time. My comments on every subject are usually sarcastic. Do they have a working sarcasm detector? Or is it all about the things you follow? George Takei is a gay rights activist. So would a conservative who likes ice cream (ben and jerrys) and George Takei be labeled liberal?

    Or is someone who is far-left who attacks Hillary going to be labeled conservative for being anti-Democrat?

    I've seen those types of labels applied. They never work. I got rejected from a minimum wage job in college because the chain store had a standard questionaire. If you answered that you don't use drugs, but think they should be legal, you were considered a lying drug user. The makers of the test couldn't conceive of someone who thinks drugs should be legal and regulated, and wouldn't use them if they were. Though, this was 20+ years ago, so the modern legalization swing wasn't popular yet.

    I can only think that the labels are wrong much of the time, and the effectiveness of them is over-stated to increase Facebook's ad income.

  7. More fish by arth1 · · Score: 2

    I try to get my g/f to not post pictures and things of me but she does it anyway.

    Not respecting your request for privacy is a ditch reason.
    Seriously, I cannot see how any relationship can last without trust and respecting each other's wishes. Even when not deemed important. Especially when not deemed important.

  8. Re:Failbook knows NOTHING about me by arth1 · · Score: 2

    Since I'm not a fool who still uses Failbook, Failbook knows NOTHING about me whatsoever.

    You're a fool.
    There's extensive datacollection from Facebook on other web sites, tied to cookies, browser fingerprinting and various other means.
    Even here on Slashdot.
    Combine that with friends and acquaintances that might post about you, or pictures that contain you.

  9. Factors That suggest Political Preference by burhop · · Score: 2

    I'm a fiscally conservative, social moderate who hates Obama, has multiple openly gay friends, and generally votes libertarian when possible. Good luck categorizing that!

    It is possible to predict political preferences beyond looking at what you say about some of the defining issues. Your biology has been shown to be linked to your affiliations: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... Also this study http://www.smithsonianmag.com/...

    And then there is what you eat. http://www.livescience.com/143...

    Or how smart you are. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sci...

    Having said that, in the end, they are probably just counting how many Trump photos have been posted by the account.

    1. Re:Factors That suggest Political Preference by Anne+Thwacks · · Score: 2
      Your biology has been shown to be linked to your affiliations:

      Democrats think they have bigger dicks

      Republicans are bigger dicks

      Libertarians have small dicks

      ?

      --
      Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
  10. Re:Doubtful by Opportunist · · Score: 2

    Maybe not, but the people you friended might. Remember, we're in the age of guilt by association, you're guilty of what your "friends" commit.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  11. Re:Not *my* political preferences, I'm special by Opportunist · · Score: 2

    I'm a Marxist. Of the Groucho kind.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.