The study found that men are more likely to 'self-censor' their social network posts, compared to women, and this is especially the case if they have a lot of male friends.
More surprising, however, is the reason why the site knows this information - because it can track what you type, even if you never post it.
A Facebook data scientist studied the HTML code of 3.7 million profiles to discover 71% of users regularly type comments and statuses before deciding not to post them. The study, also found men are more likely to abandon a post on the social network site, than women
HOW CAN FACEBOOK TRACK WHAT USERS TYPE?
Data scientists can determine that a status or comment has been typed by tracking code in the HTML form element of each page.
This form element is made up of HTML code that controls the boxes Facebook users type in to, including the status update box.
Each time characters are entered into one of these boxes, scientists can track the changes in the HTML code. The researchers were also able to track typing in the comment box on statuses, photos and other posts.
To be clear, Facebook can’t track the exact keys pressed, and it doesn’t monitor keystrokes. This means the code doesn’t reveal what is being typed.
However, Facebook can track when characters and words are typed, how many are typed, and if the typed characters are deleted or abandoned.
For the study ‘Self-censorship on Facebook’, data scientist Adam Kramer who works for the social network, and student Sauvik Das, studied the profiles of 3.7 millions users by tracking the HTML form element of each page.
This element is made up of HTML code that controls the boxes Facebook users type in to, including the status update box.
Each time characters are entered into one of these boxes, scientists can track the changes in the code.
The researchers were also able to track typing in the comment box on statuses, photos and other posts.
To be clear, Facebook can’t track the exact keys pressed, and it doesn’t monitor keystrokes. This means the code doesn’t reveal what is being typed.
However, Facebook can track when characters and words are typed, how many are typed, and if the typed characters are deleted or abandoned.
For the purposes of the study, a self-censored updated was classed as entry into either of the boxes of more than five characters that was typed but not posted for at least 10 minutes.
The study found that 71 per cent of the sample users typed out a post but never submitted it, and on average this worked out at 4.52 abandoned statuses and 3.2 abandoned comments.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2525227/Facebook-tracks-type-DONT-post-update-comment.html#ixzz2nkOqv8I7
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