Shadow profile
A shadow profile is an internal user profile of a real person in a social network who is actually not a member there. For this purpose, the company independently collects data from various sources and saves them collectively. German data protectionists consider this practice to be questionable if the consent of those concerned is insufficient.
Take Facebook as an example
It is known via Facebook (or its subsidiaries WhatsApp and Instagram ) that it reads all e-mail addresses and telephone numbers from the contact lists of its users . From this and other information, Facebook then creates shadow profiles. If the owner of one of these addresses or numbers then registers with Facebook, those who have uploaded their contact details will be suggested as friends. The concept of shadow profiles has been known since at least 2013.
literature
- David Garcia: Leaking privacy and shadow profiles in online social networks . In: Science Advances . tape 3 , no. 8 , 2017, p. e1701172 , doi : 10.1126 / sciadv.1701172 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ What Facebook knows about users. In: orf.at. Österreichischer Rundfunk , November 27, 2011, accessed on March 30, 2018 .
- ↑ Facebook's secret shadow profiles: The network knows more about us than we suspect. In: stern.de. Stern , November 14, 2017, accessed March 30, 2018 .
- ↑ a b Whether users or not: Facebook creates shadow profiles for everyone. In: netzpolitik.org. netzpolitik.org , March 29, 2018, accessed March 30, 2018 .
- ↑ Max Schrems: "Facebook knows who is watching which porn for how long". In: sueddeutsche.de. Süddeutsche Zeitung , January 24, 2018, accessed on March 30, 2018 .
- ↑ ETH researcher shows: Facebook can collect your data even if you don't have an account. In: watson.ch. Watson , August 7, 2017; accessed March 30, 2018 .