
Facebook Reported to Have Filed Patent for Profiling Users
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It was revealed this week that Facebook had considered profiling its users’ personalities through messages and status updates, and using the information for ad targeting.
In a patent filed in 2012, the social network described how personality traits could be scored and used to determine what ad to show to the user. For example, a user who exhibits extroversion and openness, but scores negatively on agreeableness could be shown a holiday trip ad while a user that exhibits conscientiousness, but lack emotional stability could be shown a chocolate ad.
The patents, filed by longtime Facebook employee Michael Nowak and Dean Eckles of MIT, had been updated most recently in 2016.
Source: BBC