What is the danger...

[4everHis]

if any, in answering those questions on Facebook that seem so innocent.  Such as--There are no cities that have an e in their name or The English language has only one word that has long oo sound-good. 

People seem very quick to prove this wrong or that they know many city names that have an e. Or correct by answering hood.

What could the original poster gain by people answering?

 

[Chris in VA]

I don't think it is those questions, but tbe ones where you mention a pet or something can be fishing for info related to passwords. Also, in order to play some of those, you have to give permissions, like your contact list. 

But I don't know about questions that don't ask for that sort of info. 

 

[beaners]

View counts. People who have a reason to get more traffic on their page do it. 

[Arctic Bunny]

Just now, beaners said:

View counts. People who have a reason to get more traffic on their page do it. 

And then once you’ve started,  I imagine their sponsored posts can show up in your feed. Plus it only takes one of your friends to post, then you go see what else is on that page, etc.

[Arcadia]

From WQAD on March 2019 https://wqad.com/2019/03/09/ukrainian-hackers-used-quizzes-to-access-private-facebook-data-company-says/

“(CNN) — A pair of Ukrainian hackers used seemingly innocuous online quizzes and surveys, with titles like “What does your eye color say about you?,” to gain access to private Facebook user data and to target users with “unauthorized” advertisements, the social media company says.

The alleged hackers improperly used a Facebook feature that helped them take control of users’ internet browsers and gave them access to private information about Facebook users and their private friends’ lists, Facebook alleged in a lawsuit filed in Northern California on Friday.

Working out of Kiev, Ukraine, Andrey Gorbachov and Gleb Sluchevsky allegedly lured Facebook users to connect their accounts to a range of online quiz apps with names like, “Do you have royal blood?, “You are yin. Who is your yang?” and “What kind of dog are you according to your zodiac sign?”

Once users connected their Facebook and other social media accounts they were asked to install what Facebook described as “malicious browser extensions” that essentially allowed the alleged hackers to pose as the affected users online.

...

The alleged hackers accessed Facebook users’ information, including their name, age range, and profile picture, and also accessed their private list of Facebook friends.The defendants used access to users’ browsers to “inject unauthorized advertisements” when user’s visited Facebook and other social media sites, Facebook said.”

From Newsweek in June 2018 https://www.newsweek.com/facebooks-new-leak-nametests-quiz-apps-120-million-users-exposed-user-data-999261

“Sensitive Facebook information for up to 120 million users was put at risk for years by a leaky quiz application company called Nametests.com, a security researcher disclosed today, proving what many experts previously suspected: Cambridge Analytica was the tip of the iceberg.

Inti De Ceukelaire, an ethical hacker and bug bounty hunter, found that anyone could have accessed the Facebook profile information of users signed up to one of the many quizes being circulated via the application. He discovered that the data—which included names, date of births, posts, statuses, pictures and friend lists—could be compromised even after the apps were deleted.

The researcher, who uploaded footage of the security issue to YouTube, said in a blog post he was “shocked” to find that the website would fetch a user’s Facebook information and display it on an external webpage configured in a way that could be accessed—and exploited—by literally anyone. “In a normal situation, other websites should not be able to access this information,” he warned.

The issue was reported to the Mark Zuckerberg-led platform on April 22 and resolved in late-June this year. According to internet records, the flaw had existed since 2016. Nametests, which has 120 million monthly active users thanks to Facebook pages in different languages, offers tests and quizes which spread across social media. The developer said it had “no evidence of abuse by a third party.””

[mom2scouts]

One of my kids works in cybersecurity. He says not to answer those because they often provide information that hackers can use. You may not realize how much that information is used to protect more sensitive accounts.

[Ausmumof3]

I seriously cannot imagine why some would risk installing a piece of random internet software to get access to a dumb quiz though.  

[Farrar]

56 minutes ago, Ausmumof3 said:

I seriously cannot imagine why some would risk installing a piece of random internet software to get access to a dumb quiz though.  

You don't install anything, you give permissions. I think it's just so common to give permissions. I mean, sometimes it's genuinely okay too. But those quiz apps. Dang.

One of the things I've tried to stress to my last friends who do them is that it's not even your information they want all the time. I have a friend who flippantly says, oh, I'm dirt poor, I have nothing they could possibly use. But it's not that they're doing traditional identity theft most of the time. They can start creating a bubble around you where they feed you misinformation. It's really disturbing.

[Ausmumof3]

1 minute ago, Farrar said:

You don't install anything, you give permissions. I think it's just so common to give permissions. I mean, sometimes it's genuinely okay too. But those quiz apps. Dang.

One of the things I've tried to stress to my last friends who do them is that it's not even your information they want all the time. I have a friend who flippantly says, oh, I'm dirt poor, I have nothing they could possibly use. But it's not that they're doing traditional identity theft most of the time. They can start creating a bubble around you where they feed you misinformation. It's really disturbing.

No kidding!

[4everHis]

Thanks for the info. I couldn't help but wonder why they seem to be showing up more often. Especially in my "older" friends posts.