The software that points 'gaydar' at Facebook

I know those chaps at MIT get involved in some strange pursuits.

But here's one that might make some readers feel that the world is now irreversibly eerie.

According to the Boston Globe, two MIT students, Carter Jernigan and Behram Mistree, seemingly fascinated with ethics and law and, possibly, other people's sex lives, became enraptured by how much information people are revealing through their Facebook profiles.

So they delved into some Facebook profile data and believe they have created software that can tell whether someone on Facebook is gay, merely by looking at his or her friends.

Especially, it seems, his friends.

(Credit: CC Todd Huffman/Flickr)

Although the students couldn't actually prove that what they surmised was true, they used what they seem to describe as personal knowledge and concluded that their program was especially accurate when it came to identifying gay men.

One of the students' professors, Hal Abelson, used some interesting imagery to describe their apparent discovery, now excitingly dubbed Project "Gaydar." Said Abelson: "That pulls the rug out from a whole policy and technology perspective that the point is to give you control over your information - because you don't have control over your information."

I'm not sure I am quite as excited by this rug-pulling as Professor Abelson.

In the real world, one's choice of friends may, indeed, send out signals about all kinds of characteristics and predilections one might have.

And in the Facebook world, who cares if someone is gay or straight? They're not real friends anyway, are they?

However, I am not frightfully fond of the concept of even well-meaning uberbrains trawling through my personal things in order to make assertions about who, what, how or even where I am.

I am sure, for example, that if I were to come to your house and examine your underwear drawer I might be tempted to reach certain conclusions about your lifestyle.

I might, though, just be wrong, mightn't I?

[dowell100]

I finally figure out why I end up on this blog so often. Matyszczyk is a genius at writing headlines. Not articles, mind you, just headlines.

[Kev_Orng]

You know that headlines are usually written by a headline editor right? Not necessarily on cnet, but in most news papers, sites and blogs with more than 10 staff, the headlines are all written by someone who's job it is to get you to read the article.

That being said, I don't know if that 's the case here.

[Goodbye Helicopter]

He's probly uncomfy with Gaydar point at himself... hehe

[karpenterskids]

I'd like to know what percent accuracy their approach achieves!

[SlimGem]

"I am sure, for example, that if I were to come to your house and examine your underwear drawer I might be tempted to reach certain conclusions about your lifestyle."

I don't know about my underwear, but my Spider Man jammies might give you ideas.

[pbradleyii]

Re: "However, I am not frightfully fond of the concept of even well-meaning uberbrains trawling through my personal things in order to make assertions about who, what, how or even where I am.

I am sure, for example, that if I were to come to your house and examine your underwear drawer I might be tempted to reach certain conclusions about your lifestyle.
"

Since I don't Facebook, I don't really know if profile info is public or not, but really, anything posted to Facebook can't be considered private, can it? A better analogy would be people trolling through your underwear if you left it on a clothes line in your front yard with a webcam aimed at it.

[ktwbc]

This is only "shocking" because we're talking about "outing" someone (even just on paper). But the larger issue, determing characteristics by profile information is what marketers have used all along. Know who'd be interested in going through your underwear drawer? The people who want to sell you more underwear!