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Evolution of Privacy Loss in Wikipedia

Authors:

Marian-Andrei Rizoiu,

Tiberio Caetano,

Manuel CebrianAuthors Info & Claims

WSDM '16: Proceedings of the Ninth ACM International Conference on Web Search and Data Mining

Pages 215 - 224

https://doi.org/10.1145/2835776.2835798

Published: 08 February 2016 Publication History

Abstract

The cumulative effect of collective online participation has an important and adverse impact on individual privacy. As an online system evolves over time, new digital traces of individual behavior may uncover previously hidden statistical links between an individual's past actions and her private traits. To quantify this effect, we analyze the evolution of individual privacy loss by studying the edit history of Wikipedia over 13 years, including more than 117,523 different users performing 188,805,088 edits. We trace each Wikipedia's contributor using apparently harmless features, such as the number of edits performed on predefined broad categories in a given time period (e.g. Mathematics, Culture or Nature). We show that even at this unspecific level of behavior description, it is possible to use off-the-shelf machine learning algorithms to uncover usually undisclosed personal traits, such as gender, religion or education. We provide empirical evidence that the prediction accuracy for almost all private traits consistently improves over time. Surprisingly, the prediction performance for users who stopped editing after a given time still improves. The activities performed by new users seem to have contributed more to this effect than additional activities from existing (but still active) users. Insights from this work should help users, system designers, and policy makers understand and make long-term design choices in online content creation systems.

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Cited By

Yuan LRizoiu M(2025)Generalizing Hate Speech Detection Using Multi-Task Learning: A Case Study of Political Public FiguresComputer Speech & Language10.1016/j.csl.2024.10169089(101690)Online publication date: Jan-2025
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.csl.2024.101690
Champion KHill B(2023)Taboo and Collaborative Knowledge Production: Evidence from WikipediaProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36100907:CSCW2(1-25)Online publication date: 4-Oct-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3610090
Nurek MMichalski RLizardo ORizoiu M(2023)Predicting Relationship Labels and Individual Personality Traits From Telecommunication History in Social Networks Using Hawkes ProcessesIEEE Access10.1109/ACCESS.2023.323897011(8492-8503)Online publication date: 2023
https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2023.3238970
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

Evolution of Privacy Loss in Wikipedia

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cover image ACM Conferences

WSDM '16: Proceedings of the Ninth ACM International Conference on Web Search and Data Mining

February 2016

746 pages

ISBN:9781450337168

DOI:10.1145/2835776

General Chairs:
Paul N. Bennett
Microsoft Research
,
Vanja Josifovski
Pinterest
,
Program Chairs:
Jennifer Neville
Purdue University
,
Filip Radlinski
Microsoft

Copyright © 2016 Owner/Author.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for third-party components of this work must be honored. For all other uses, contact the Owner/Author.

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Published: 08 February 2016

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WSDM 2016: Ninth ACM International Conference on Web Search and Data Mining

February 22 - 25, 2016

California, San Francisco, USA

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WSDM '16 Paper Acceptance Rate 67 of 368 submissions, 18%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 498 of 2,863 submissions, 17%

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Cited By

Yuan LRizoiu M(2025)Generalizing Hate Speech Detection Using Multi-Task Learning: A Case Study of Political Public FiguresComputer Speech & Language10.1016/j.csl.2024.10169089(101690)Online publication date: Jan-2025
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.csl.2024.101690
Champion KHill B(2023)Taboo and Collaborative Knowledge Production: Evidence from WikipediaProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36100907:CSCW2(1-25)Online publication date: 4-Oct-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3610090
Nurek MMichalski RLizardo ORizoiu M(2023)Predicting Relationship Labels and Individual Personality Traits From Telecommunication History in Social Networks Using Hawkes ProcessesIEEE Access10.1109/ACCESS.2023.323897011(8492-8503)Online publication date: 2023
https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2023.3238970
Rizoiu MSoen ALi SCalderon PDong LMenon AXie L(2022)Interval-censored Hawkes processesThe Journal of Machine Learning Research10.5555/3586589.358692723:1(15236-15319)Online publication date: 1-Jan-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/3586589.3586927
Abián DMeroño-Peñuela ASimperl E(2022)An Analysis of Content Gaps Versus User Needs in the Wikidata Knowledge GraphThe Semantic Web – ISWC 202210.1007/978-3-031-19433-7_21(354-374)Online publication date: 16-Oct-2022
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-19433-7_21
Miquel Ribé MLaniado DKaltenbrunner A(2021)The Role of Local Content in Wikipedia: A Study on Reader and Editor EngagementÁrea Abierta10.5209/arab.7280121:2(123-151)Online publication date: 17-May-2021
https://doi.org/10.5209/arab.72801
Bernstein MHooper C(2021)Petit mode d’emploi des médias sociaux à l’usage des personnes malveillantesShort instructions for villains on how to use social mediaBreve manual sobre el uso de los medios sociales por personas malintencionadasRevue d'anthropologie des connaissances10.4000/rac.1972715:1Online publication date: 1-Mar-2021
https://doi.org/10.4000/rac.19727
Minguillón JMeneses JAibar EFerran-Ferrer NFàbregues S(2021)Exploring the gender gap in the Spanish Wikipedia: Differences in engagement and editing practicesPLOS ONE10.1371/journal.pone.024670216:2(e0246702)Online publication date: 23-Feb-2021
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0246702
Brückner SLemmerich FStrohmaier M(2021)Inferring Sociodemographic Attributes of Wikipedia Editors: State-of-the-art and Implications for Editor PrivacyCompanion Proceedings of the Web Conference 202110.1145/3442442.3452350(616-622)Online publication date: 19-Apr-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3442442.3452350
Bernstein MHooper CLee DSastry NWeber I(2018)A Villain's Guide To Social Media And Web ScienceProceedings of the 29th on Hypertext and Social Media10.1145/3209542.3210576(246-250)Online publication date: 3-Jul-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3209542.3210576
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