A tech company has created a Facebook app that utilizes artificial technology to analyze Facebook users’ personality based on their posts. The tool can then use the information it gathers to compare users to friends or public figures on the site.

The tool, created by San Francisco tech company Five, pulls key words from users’ wall posts and then breaks down their personalities into the so-called Big Five personality traits: Openness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness and Neuroticism. You can then compare your number with a populated list of similar friends.

“Think of this as a personality snapshot,” said Nikita Bier, Five’s co-founder. “It’s all for fun, but we’re also hoping to educate. People need to ask themselves a profound question: ‘how does my data portray me on public networks – and how might that be used?’”

The company claims that they are committed to user privacy and that they will never post to your wall or store any of your data.

Facebook is always seeking new ways to profit from its users’ data, and tools like this one are just a small glimpse of where “Big Data” technology could be headed. In a world where even the text of posts can be broken down into data bytes, it’s more important than ever for Facebook users to carefully monitor everything they post on the site.

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