Our digital shadow

Cambridge – A new online platform highlights the ease with which we can be profiled based on our digital imprint.

Predictive World is based on the hacker video game Watch Dogs 2
Developed by the University of Cambridge Psychometrics Centre

The platform asks users to input either their basic information – age and gender – or to connect to their Facebook profile for a more accurate prognosis. Based on this data combined with a large amount of open data, the site uses an algorithm to attribute a range of predictions for each user.

The findings are divided into seven categories – psychology, health, profile, environment, family, work and preferences – with answers to topics such as satisfaction with life and homicide risk.

According to the site, we collectively deposit 2.5 quintillion bytes of data each day from processes such as online transactions and social media activity. Through the platform, the developers hope to highlight the risks we all open ourselves up to on a daily basis, asking users: ‘Are you really going to keep thinking you are immune and underestimate the risks?’

The Big Picture

Predictive World is a more sophisticated version of online trackers that we have covered. But as we have seen in The Sharded Self consumers are continually exploring ways to curate their online presence, which raises the question: is our online persona truly reflective of our offline selves?