Facebook knows about the changes in your relationship - before you even tell the website.
We all know Facebook collects personal data. The company tracks our locations, how often we post, what we post, what websites we visit, etc. What you might not know, perhaps, is that Facebook tracks our relationships. Now, according to an article posted Friday on mashable.com, Facebook can predict the status of our relationship before its public.
Facebook has been collecting data about our relationships since 2010. They now have enough metrics, they say, to predict when a relationship will start, when it's at its peak, and when it will end, all based on the amount of times we post on our significant other's wall.
We all know Facebook collects personal data. The company tracks our locations, how often we post, what we post, what websites we visit, etc. What you might not know, perhaps, is that Facebook tracks our relationships. Now, according to an article posted Friday on mashable.com, Facebook can predict the status of our relationship before its public.
Facebook has been collecting data about our relationships since 2010. They now have enough metrics, they say, to predict when a relationship will start, when it's at its peak, and when it will end, all based on the amount of times we post on our significant other's wall.
I always knew to be cautious about what I post on Facebook, and I knew that Facebook collected some personal data. I did not know that Facebook stored that data, however. It's a big leap, at least in my mind, from keeping data that's relevant to website metrics and storing data for extraneous studies. I can't think of anything useful that would come from Facebook knowing about our relationship statuses - they aren't a part of our relationships, so why should they care what our personal relationship statuses are? I think this is the new beginning of 'privacy' on the Internet: everything we post, no matter how inconsequential, will be used for new "studies" that are actually just invasions of our privacy and personal lives.
If you want to read the mashable article it can be found here.
I really wonder how Facebook would view my relationship. I hardly ever go on Facebook and I think that I only posted on his wall a few times when we first started dating. Going simply by how often I have posted on his wall it probably looks like we are broken up, even though we are still going strong. I wonder if this is new found data collection is accurate given the decrease of regular Facebook users and the shift to an older demographic which are most likely married.
ReplyDeleteI'm in the same boat as Jess; I've been with my boyfriend for coming up on three years now, but if Facebook were to look at our relationship it probably would seem like the relationship isn't strong. I don't communicate with him through Facebook much, and even before we started dating I think I posted on his wall... once or twice, not including the obligatory happy birthday postings. It's interesting to think about the shift in dynamic as Jess said, too; the main demographic of Facebook is starting to change and that might cause a major shift in logistics when it comes to relationship analysis and the like.
ReplyDeleteFacebook’s privacy issues have been an ongoing issue for a while. They have changed their privacy settings so many times that people can’t keep up with it. Now, with the relationship tracking, they have opened up a whole separate list of questions. There are a few reasons that I can think of as to why they would do this. The first would be that they could be tracking this information for the purpose of putting together a montage of your relationship history, like they did with your general Facebook history. The only other reason that I can think of is that they would be trying to suggest people for you that could potentially turn into a relationship. With all of this being said, I am torn. I don’t think that they should be able to do this, but at the same time, it is the internet and nothing is every truly private.
ReplyDeleteAnalyzing your relationship status might have something to do with advertising. When I was engaged, I would see ads on Facebook that dealt with wedding planning. Social media uses your profile information to target their advertising campaigns. Keeping track of your relationship status is one way social media sites like Facebook know what advertising you might respond to (I actually worked in advertising for a few years, so I know it works this way!)
ReplyDeleteI think Facebook can predict someones relationship status but not 100%. I go on Facebook a lot, but I don't post on my boyfriends wall all the time and he does't post on mine. So I think it's unfair for them to say they can predict when its at its strongest point etc. I also think Facebook changes its privacy settings to much. Each time it does we have to go back and change ours back the way we want it. I see a lot of advertisements on Facebook now compared to a few years ago.
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