Beware of the sham Facebook grammar test!

      It has been hard not to see Facebook friend posts this last week with a grammar test they took.  Most are impressive scores of 15 out of 15.  While these friends may seem like people who are brilliant in grammar I became suspicious of the test when it didn't give you the answers to the test.  How could you know what questions you missed?  To test out my suspicions I decided to see what would happen if I randomly chose my answers.  I chose the first answer to every question and got a score of 15 out of 15.  I then took the quiz again and chose the second or third answer to each question.  Do you know what score I got the second time?  I got 15 out of 15 again.  As many times as I took the quiz answering randomly I never got less than a score of 12 right.
      So what is the purpose of these Facebook quizzes?    These quizzes reveal your profile and you become fair game the minute you allow a quiz or application to access your profile information, even if you use privacy settings to limit access. Third-party developers are able to see everything from your name and hometown to the events you attend and the groups you join. Facebook quizzes may be fun but by allowing the quiz to access your profile, you could be losing your identity instead.  Facebook has become a minefield for marketers to learn about your profile to tailor the ads you see on your Facebook page.  The developers of these quizzes know that you are more likely to share the quiz with your friends if you have a high score so that is the score you will always get. You have been warned!