Is The Facebook '10 Year Challenge' Really Part of a Secret Ploy

There's a new challenge going around on Facebook - the '10 Year Challenge' - but it might not be as innocent as it seems.

You've probably seen your friends posting two profile pictures side-by-side as part of a new meme going around Facebook, the '10 Year Challenge'. The challenge asks users to post their very first profile picture along side their current profile picture to show how much they've changed (or haven't changed) since then. Seems innocent enough, right?

Maybe not.

On Wired.com, Kate O'Neill, who's a Tech Humanist (in her Twitter bio, she says she's preparing humanity to deal with a tech-driven future) posited an alternate theory for the 10 Year Challenge that's less about you and more about computer algorithms.

Now, O'Neill goes on to say that she doesn't believe the meme began with this in mind...but then she goes on to lay out all the different ways it could actually work. "In other words, thanks to this meme, there’s now a very large dataset of carefully curated photos of people from roughly 10 years ago and now," O'Neill says, describing all the photos now posted on Facebook.

It's nearly certain that Facebook and other internet giants like Amazon are using our data in ways we probably can't even imagine. And even if they're not using it now - it's certainly possible that they could in the future (seriously makes me reconsider that DNA I sent to Ancestry.com)

Did you take the 10 Year Challenge? Do you think Facebook is using it to develop new technologies or is it just fun?

[H/T Wired.com]