How Much Does Facebook Really Know About Its Users?

Since social networks have become more user-data and advertising driven, algorithms have been of chief importance, and Facebook is seemingly always under fire. A personality trait study on Facebook that began in 2007 recently drew to a close, and has led to questions about whether Facebook could knows us better than we know each other.

Researchers from the University of Cambridge and Stanford University surveyed 86,220 participants and 70,520 of the participant results were cross-checked using an algorithm that analysed their Facebook activity.

The study reads:

Using several criteria, we show that computers’ judgments of people’s personalities based on their digital footprints are more accurate and valid than judgments made by their close others or acquaintances (friends, family, spouse, colleagues, etc.).