It’s commonly observed that people nowadays are taking these name tests and other similar quizzes on Facebook, ultimately filling up your timeline with these luring and baiting posts. I’m very certain that your bleeding desire has driven you to do at least one of these tempting quizzes. But, the next time you run over such posts or quizzes, think ten times before attempting them because they aren’t as ‘harmless’ as they appear to be.
Just think, why would anyone bother to ask you what your favourite song is, what word you used the most, what does your name mean, what celebrity resembles you the most or which celebrity likes you the most? Why on earth would the quiz-makers build up such apps for free public usage? And you’ve probably heard: “everything that comes for free and is public, does have a catch”, pondering what it is here? The catch here is a major ordeal, it’s a tremendous scam that you’re wound into.
You’re leaked by all your data
A UK based company Comparitech, that compares VPN services, has looked profoundly into one of these infectious quizzes. Their findings discuss what all information does the “most used words” quiz by vonvon.me gather. To your surprise, the quiz-makers (the scammers) know you just about in and out after you take the quiz as it collects the following data through Facebook:
- Name, profile picture, age, sex, birthday, and other public info
- Entire friend list
- Everything you’ve ever posted on your timeline
- All of your photos and photos you’re tagged in
- Education history
- Hometown and current city
- Everything you’ve ever liked
- IP address
- Info about the device you’re using including browser and language
From Comparitech
Hmm, still willing to take another luring quiz? I hope not.
Deleting app access, end of problem? Not quite!
You might have a moment of relief when you think about deleting the app access and terminating your account with the app (in this case the vonvon.me quiz), which would solve the problem, but you’re wrong! The privacy policy on vonvon.me makes it entirely clear that even if you terminate using their services, they’ll continue utilising your information. Scary isn’t it?
These scammers follow no limits
Their boundaries aren’t decided, because once your data is with them, you’re just out of control of what happens with it! And remember, once you associate it with your Facebook account you effectively sign their privacy policy, which means you’re now stuck into their horrendous trap! Besides, a few of these quizzes also ask to share the link on your Facebook Timeline in order to display your result, simply pushing you to do their marketting and making itself go viral.
So, the next time you tumble upon such a quiz or a name test, take a wise decision and move on!
