If
you thought you were anonymous online, think again. A new study has revealed
that your browsing behavior can indicate your personality and provide a unique
digital signature that can identify you, sometimes after just 30-minutes of
browsing.
"Our
research suggests a person's personality traits can be deduced by their general
internet usage. This differs from other studies that have only looked at the
use of social media platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter," said lead
author Dr Ikusan R. Adeyemi of the Universiti Teknologi.
He
continued that revealing that these behavioral signatures exist opens up new
research into understanding online behavior.
The
study recruited volunteers and monitored their internet usage. This included
many factors such as the duration of the internet session, number of websites
browsed and total number of requests made.
The
analysis of this data revealed strong links between a person's personality and
browsing behavior. For example, an individual's level of conscientiousness
could be distinguished within a 30-minute session of online browsing.
"Online
marketing organizations can use our findings to reliably tailor their product
to a specific audience; it can be used to develop an intelligent internet
service that can predict and personalize a user's experience," explained
Dr. Adeyami, "It can also be used as a complementary way of increasing
security for online identification and authentication. Law enforcement agencies
can also apply our findings in the investigation of online crime cases."
Further
research by Dr Adeyami and his colleagues hope to reveal more patterns across
the five personality traits investigated, which will help to map an
individual's personality signature and increase our understanding of online behavior.
The
study appears in Frontiers in ICT.
Representative
Image
Source:
ANI
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