Behavioral evidence analysis on Facebook: a test of cyber-profiling

Abstract

This article applies criminal profiling in a cyber-context. More precisely, a deductive profiling method, behavioral evidence analysis, is adopted to develop cyber-profiling that aims to analyze the subject’s online behaviors. In the present study, Facebook.com was chosen as the research site and cyber-profi ling was applied to analyze Facebook users’ online behavioral evidence. The goal was to predict some of their personality traits, namely self-control. The information revealed by the user was regarded as online behavioral evidence. Profiling based on such evidence successfully identify most people with low self-control, as confirmed by the participants themselves. The results show that accurate profiling is achievable, although cyber-profiling on Facebook by no means can represent the full scope of cyber-profiling.