A couple of months ago researchers announced that iPhone users were more likely to see their phones as a status symbol than those using an android phone. It set off debate on what phones could tell us about an individual\u2019s personality. The research, carried out at Lancaster University, suggested that iPhone users are younger, more likely to be female and more extraverted, and ironically, considering the phone\u2019s popularity, are \u201cless concerned about owning devices favoured by most people\u201d. Android users on the other hand, as well as being male and older, are likely to be \u201cmore honest\u201d and \u201cmore agreeable\u201d. The research also suggested that android users are \u201cless interested in wealth and status\u201d. As research goes this is all pretty harmless and amusing stuff. But imagine if the data somehow found its way into a profile-driven online decision-making process used to determine membership of a club, the opening of a bank account or even car insurance premiums. Last month, just before the US election made the story old news, Facebook blocked a car insurance company from using potential customers\u2019 online profiles to determine whether they might be a good driver or not. The algorithm the insurance company planned to use included judgements made on what a person posted on the platform, though they claimed they would not include photographs. The insurance company was going to be looking for habits that might point to the applicant potentially being a good driver and that included whether the user wrote \u201cin short, concise sentences, using lists\u201d and arranged \u201cto meet friends at a set time and place.\u201d Facebook blocked the use of the system on grounds of data privacy, but the information is out there. And in the same way that it\u2019s na\u00efve to think potential employers don\u2019t look at people\u2019s online activities before accepting them for jobs, with so much information on purchasing habits, political stances and lifestyle choices now in the public domain, it may also be a mistake to think that this type of profiling won\u2019t filter into algorithms that affect a lot more of our future. Having said that, there\u2019s no need for anyone to be paranoid…\u00a0 but they are watching\u2026 Happy New Year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A couple of months ago researchers announced that iPhone users were more likely to see their phones as a status symbol than those using an android phone. It set off debate on what phones could tell us about an individual\u2019s personality. The research, carried out at Lancaster University, suggested that iPhone users are younger, more […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[13],"class_list":["post-3087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-editorials","tag-fergus-byrne"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3087\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}