Researchers at Arizona State University have developed a computer program that connects user ID’s across social media websites. Information shared by users acts as a fingerprint that can help to identify user age and identity. Information placed on social media websites is mined and used to build user profiles. The profiles are compared to find redundancies across profiles. This program takes human behavior into account in determining attributes such as a user name and its associated profile information. Even when an individual creates a spoof profile, such attributes exist and can be used to determine whether or not a user profile of an individual is the same as another profile. The program can accurately determine if different user names belong to the same individual with 90% accuracy.
Potential Applications
- Internet Security
- Advertising and Marketing
- Law enforcement
Benefits and Advantages
- More Power – Allows advertisers to better target its advertising to improve effectiveness.
- Better Security – Provides improved security for social website users.
- Retrofit – Works with existing equipment and websites.
For more information about the inventor(s) and their research, please see
Dr. Huan Liu's directory webpage