How Much Does Buzzfeed Know About Your Life?

It’s really easy to get sucked into Buzzfeed quizzes. As a whole, they’re pretty lighthearted and topically relevant to whatever is in the news or pop culture on the day they’re posted. It’s fun to compare your results to your friends, especially when your friend ends up with the less favorable result. It’s fleeting amusement at its finest.

Am I surprised to read how much data Buzzfeed collects while I’m taking a “What % Wednesday Addams are You?” quiz? Hardly. But I was shocked when I realized the implications of some of the data they’ve obtained from quizzes with more serious questions, such as the “How Privileged Are You?” quiz mentioned in the article, which I definitely remember taking. It’s kind of chilling to know that millions of people have taken this quiz in earnest, and in doing so disclosed information about their mental health and life story to a disembodied digital entity. In addition to asking participants about sexual assault, this specific quiz asks them to specify their sexuality and gender identity. It makes me sad to think about how many people have taken this quiz and given honest answers to these questions, but may not be in a place where they can comfortably disclose this information to people in their own lives.

I hope that Buzzfeed uses the information with a good purpose. Maybe they can use the data to create sharable statistics, or influence social change. It would be foolish for anyone to look at Buzzfeed as not having weight, and it would be foolish for Buzzfeed to collect personal details idly.