BuzzFeed is Watching You

As I pointed out on Twitte(1), this looks like it might be illegal in the UK.

Things such as ethnic background, political opinions, and religious beliefs are classified as sensitive personal data(2)

Such data can only be recorded in specific circumstances and only with explicit consent(3). Such quizzes, from my point of view at least, do not make it clear that you are consenting to the data being collected.

(1) https://twitter.com/p8952_

(2) https://www.gov.uk/data-protection/the-data-protection-act

(3) http://ico.org.uk/for_organisations/data_protection/the_guid...

Sensationalist post... It mentions Google Analytics (duh, sadly everyone uses it) and quizzes where users choose to participate. Nothing else. Yes, if you answer things in an quiz, those answers can give the host information about you. Duh!

The site itself (barker.co.uk) lets the following sites spy on its visitors: gravatar.com, googletagmanager.com, google-analytics.com, addthis.com, doubleclick.net, scorecardresearch.com, media6degrees.com, adnxs.com, reson8.com, pippity.com

PS: If the author is reading this, your design makes reading the screenshot impossible on small screen as it makes it tiny and forbids zooming out. :( Oh, and that annoying mail newsletter pop-up further down the page? Can't even read that.

Yes, it's about advertising.

"Quizzes are free data mining tools for brands" http://www.marketplace.org/topics/business/quizzes-are-free-...

"BuzzFeed Quizzes: What Data Set Do You Belong To?" http://www.npr.org/2014/03/01/284338543/buzzfeed-quizzes-wha...