Catch Behind Facebook Quizzes
Facebook quizzes, everyone is taking them. Everyone wants to know what Disney princess they are most like, or which one of their friends they will end up marrying. However, what is the cost for these answers? Some quizzes force advertisements. Some lock the results in exchange for payment. Is that where it stops?

There are many providers of these quizzes, Facebook is one of the easiest places to find them. When you take one of those quizzes, you allow them access to your account. The quiz developers now have access to all of your information and even your friends’. This information includes Personal info, current location, work history and even religious views, among other things. There is no limit to the extent this information can be used against you.

Forced advertising and payment for results is only a small part of the issues with these quizzes. Many are a part of a data-mining projects and form portfolios on the users. Users don’t read the privacy policies and unknowingly opt-in for these invasions, and even recurring credit card payments. It comes down to trust. If the provider of the quiz sounds trustworthy, then it might be safe, but it won’t hurt to glance over the privacy policy anyways, sometimes just clicking on a link can give the owner of the site permission to access your profile.
Buzzfeed is also a huge supplier of these popular quizzes, the biggest one being “What City Should You Actually Live In?” with 20 million views. The quizzes you see now with the cute squares and pretty fonts are one of the reasons they do so well. According to Summer Ann Burton, the quizzes are built to feel personal and that is what makes them relatable. Sometimes you get quizzes that just don’t make any sense in the correlation between answers and the results, but these are just meant to be humorous and aren’t as successful as the ones that reveal personality traits.

Next time you want to know “Where You Should Go For a Vacation,” think about whether the site is trustworthy and if you can trust them to stay out of your business. In your Facebook settings, it is even possible to limit the information apps can get from your profile, which is a highly encouraged step to take if you take many of these quizzes. Be safe.
