Ideas worth spreading

Your social media "likes" expose more than you think

2,560,807 views | Jennifer Golbeck • TEDxMidAtlantic 2013

Do you like curly fries? Have you Liked them on Facebook? Watch this talk to find out the surprising things Facebook (and others) can guess about you from your random Likes and Shares. Computer scientist Jennifer Golbeck explains how this came about, how some applications of the technology are not so cute -- and why she thinks we should return the control of information to its rightful owners.

Do you like curly fries? Have you Liked them on Facebook? Watch this talk to find out the surprising things Facebook (and others) can guess about you from your random Likes and Shares. Computer scientist Jennifer Golbeck explains how this came about, how some applications of the technology are not so cute -- and why she thinks we should return the control of information to its rightful owners.

This talk was presented to a local audience at TEDxMidAtlantic 2013, an independent event. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

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About the speaker

Jennifer Golbeck

Computer scientist

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As the director of the Human-Computer Interaction Lab at the University of Maryland, Jennifer Golbeck studies how people use social media -- and thinks about ways to improve their interactions.

Jennifer Golbeck | Slate, December 13, 2013 | Article

On Second Thought ...

This article shows just how deeply social media sites are probing what users are thinking — even if it's not information they have chosen to share.

Jennifer Golbeck | Slate, January 1, 2014 | Article

I Decided to Delete All My Facebook Activity

If you try to manage your social media profiles and take down a lot of information, it is very hard. Deleting all the posts from a long-standing Facebook profile can take weeks!

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This talk was presented to a local audience at TEDxMidAtlantic 2013, an independent event. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

Read more about TEDx.