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There’s no question that your phone says a lot about you. How could it not, given that it’s permanently attached to your hand, even when you’re in the bathroom? (Don’t lie, everyone does it.) But a new study says that they can tell your age, sex and income from just looking at your apps, and I’m officially kind of freaked out.
In a new study published on Monday in the in the online journal arXiv, researchers at Aalto University in Finland and the Qatar Computing Research Institute used the demographics of more than 3,700 people cross-referenced with app usage and ascertained apps and demographic characteristics correlated. Using their findings, “they then found that they could predict a user’s gender, age, marital status and income with between 61- and 82-percent accuracy”, according to The Washington Post.
The paper decided to put the metrics to the test and created a quiz based on the research’s findings, which I of course took. My results: “Single guy older than 32 who makes more than $52,000/year.”
Let’s break it down:
Single: Yes
Guy: No
Over 32: A lady never tells her age
Makes Over $52,000 a year: Yes
So…let’s call it a 50% correct rate. Now, I suppose I’m not “typical.” I actually don’t have a lot of apps on my phone because clutter bothers me. I’ll download things, use them, delete them, and then re-download from the mythical cloud when I need them again. According to the paper, that’s about right; they say the tool is “not perfectly accurate, particularly if you don’t have a lot of apps on your phone … but it should help illustrate exactly how much we’re inadvertently letting advertisers and app-makers know.”
Which is kind of freaky, when you think about it this way: “Studying the predictability of demographics … points out privacy implications of users allowing apps to access their list of installed apps,” the researchers wrote in their paper. “Many users undoubtedly do not carefully review the permissions that the apps they install require, and even less, understand the scope of the information that can be inferred from the data accessible by the apps.”
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be deleting all of the apps from my phone. As a single guy over 32 who makes more than $52,000, I don’t need those app people knowing all of my business..
[via The Washington Post]
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Jenna Crowley
Jenna used to be known as 2NOTBrokeGirls, but then one of the girls actually went broke, so she's struck out on her own. Jenna spends her free time saving the world, one sorority girl at a time (usually while wearing yoga pants), questioning why she decided to get a doctorate, documenting her love of all things cheese related, and hosting the new PGP podcast Don't Take It From Us. You can ask her anything you want about football, using your boobs to get what you want, and pizza at @JennaLCrowley on Twitter or via email at JennaLCrowley@gmail.com.
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Single guy, younger than 32 making over $52k. Holler.
Yeah, someone should start a website for people that fit into those demographics where they can comment on news stories, basic white women, and insufferable marriage announcements.
Sounds like a hell of an idea. I think you’re onto a pretty good business idea there.
Do guys over 32 yrs old not play Clash of Clans? If so I don’t want to grow up.
Single lady, under 32, making over $52k.
Well, at least it knows I’m young.
You’re probably just being mistaken for most of your HR coworkers.
I’m not sure there are young women working in HR. They all seem to just appear when they’re 40.
I’m 28 and an HR Mgr for a large manufacturing site. We exist.
But your name is Nancy, which adds at least 12 years.
Good point-need to rethink my PGP name.
Why is no one concerned about the woman in the photo? Is she single?
Stock photo chick.
Single lady, younger than 32, making over 52K….at least it got age right. I’m offended it blamed Pinterest as the reason it thinks I’m a girl. Where else are you supposed to get cooking recipes
Single lady younger than 32 making over $52k – correct except for the single part. I’m single as far as the government is concerned though so they’re right on that technically.
Single, check.
Male, check.
Under 32, check.
Makes over $52000…..well I guess I use my phone like the guy with the job I want, not the job I have.
50% of the time it works…every time!
I had 5 of the apps on that list (that didn’t come standard on my phone) and it only fucked up saying I was single. That $52k/yr is a total cop out though, would be way more impressed if it had 3 or 4 different salary brackets.
Single/ under 32/ $52,000+. Reality married/ under 32/ $0, so they got 1/3 right…