Guessing gender from browser history
I just found a clever trick for guessing gender from browser history. I tried it and then realized that I’m a crappy test for the system: yes, likelihood of my being male is 99%. But if I read a hardcore geek tech blog, then that’s probably the case anyway. I could emulate that behaviour with a simple return(G_MALE) in the code.
I pushed the link to a few women for some more strenuous testing. Penny Leach was told she’s 52% likely to be female, and Laurel at O’Reilly was told she’s 50% likely to be female. Perhaps on the internet, everyone surfs like a MALE with probability 50%. How’d the test work for you? Let me know in the comments ….
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(via O’Reilly Radar – Insight, analysis, and research about emerging technologies.)
Category: society
Tags: browser, gender, habits, online, politic, representation
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