New Tool Mines Facebook Data To Predict When You Will Die

Eye Looking Through A KeyholeVideo game developer Ubisoft recently developed an online tool called Predictive World that can access your Facebook profile and (allegedly) tell you things about yourself, including how tall your are, how much you weigh, how much you drink and smoke, and even when you are going to die.

The tool, which was created in conjunction with the Psychometrics Center at the University of Cambridge, serves to promote Watch Dogs 2, Ubisoft’s latest game that deals with themes of hacking and big data. According to the company, they created the site to show users just how much can be gleaned about them from the seemingly inconsequential information they share online.

“Each day, we leave a trail of more than 5 billion gigabytes of data behind us,” the video game company wrote. “This information comes from billions of collection points: from online transactions of course, to GPS signals, social media likes, texts we exchange, or even parking tickets, soda dispensers, etc. They are then sold, bought, and analyzed through different touch points in order to create strong and accurate probabilities on who we are or what we’re most likely to do.”

However, the tool may not be entirely accurate; writing for Naked Security, Lisa Vaas noted that Predictive World thought she was significantly heavier, taller and more cash-poor than she actually is. Still, it’s scary that tools like this that gather all of your Facebook information can be made so easily in the first place. For this reason, we often encourage our users to avoid such apps.