Study warns of facebook ID privacy risks

A new study raises privacy concerns about the ability to correctly identify people and parts of their Social Security numbers by matching pictures taken in public with images and information they post on social networks such as Facebook , Twitter or Google +.
The study by researchers at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh found that they were able to correctly ID student volunteers about a third of the time using pictures shot with a webcam and information they posted to Facebook.
The first five digits of their Social Security numbers were correctly determined about 27 percent of the time.
The study was funded principally by a grant from the National Science Foundation, with support of Carnegie Mellon and the U.S. Army.
Prof. Alessandro Acquisti, the study's author, told the Wall Street Journal that Facebook is becoming a de facto ID service because of the amount of information and pictures it has from its 750 million users worldwide.
"We call it the democratization of surveillance," he said.