Forgive me if this is old news (the story is dated May 16, and it reports on a conference that was held the week before that) which has already been discussed, but I just now got around to reading an article in the Web site of "New Scientist" magazine.
Speaking at the World Wide Web 2007 Conference in Banff, Canada, last week,
software engineer Jian Hu from Microsoft's research lab in Beijing and
colleagues said his team is developing software to use of a wide range of profiles in a probabilistic analysis to use your browsing habits to determine information about your identity. Hu reports that the software so far currently deduces only people's genders and ages with any accuracy, but the team say they expect to be able to "refine the profiles which
contain bogus demographic information", and one day predict your
occupation, level of qualifications, and perhaps your location.
OK, even with the crudest probabilistic analysis, you can deduce that someone who surfs a lot of Web sites devoted to the trendiest alternative bands or to TV shows and movies featuring the hottest teen idols probably isn't a 55-year-old guy in Dubuque, and someone who spends most of their online time checking out sites about prostate health, 401(k) plans, and golf courses probably isn't a 13-year-old girl in Manhattan. But clearly this MS team in Beijing has their eyes on a much tigther profile better defining just who you are, and perhaps that should make us a bit nervous. I suppose it is hardly unexpected that, with the trend toward acquisition by Google and MS of on-line advertising companies, the developiing of profiling software would be given a push, but just how far does MS intend to push this?
Anyway, the full article is
here.
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