Privacy Warning Over ‘Most Used Words On Facebook’ Quiz

Millions of Facebook users have unwittingly handed over all of their personal details to an online quiz company, it has been claimed.

More than 17 million people have taken the “What Are Your Most Used Words On Facebook?” quiz, which compiles users’ posts into colourful word clouds.

The quiz has swept across Facebook in the past few days and it has received widespread positive online media coverage.

However, a UK tech website has questioned the methods used by the makers of the quiz to gather Facebook users’ personal information.

Paul Bischoff, writing for Comparitech.com, said participants are giving up “almost every private detail about themselves to a company they likely know nothing about just to play a quiz”.

The quiz was created by South Korean app company Vonvon.me. According to Comparitech, players must give their name, profile picture, age, sex and birthday to the company, as well as their entire friend list, all of their Facebook posts and their likes.

It criticised Vonvon’s privacy policy, accusing the company of holding on to people’s information after they have completed the quiz, as well as storing their personal details on different servers in countries around the world.

Comparitech also said: “Vonvon is free to sell your data to whomever it pleases for a profit.

“Vonvon says it will not share personal information with third parties without permission, but just by playing the quiz you’ve technically given it permission.”

This would mean other companies could access the Facebook user’s information without their knowledge, Comparitech says.

It advises users to avoid online quizzes that require Facebook authentication.

But Vonvon chief executive and founder Jonghwa Kim told VentureBeat.com that his company does not sell or share users’ information with third parties.

He said: “There are some false rumours that we are trying to capture people’s information so we can sell it to third parties.

“We don’t really get any meaningful information when people uses our apps. And when they share it on their walls, it really doesn’t have much information about them.

“People look at it as something fun. Most people just try to have a good time with it.”

(Picture: Vonvon.me)