shadow profile

{{short description|Internet information privacy issue}}

A shadow profile is a collection of information pertaining to an application's users, or even some of its non-users, collected without their consent.{{Cite journal|last=Garcia|first=David|date=August 2017|title=Leaking privacy and shadow profiles in online social networks|url= |journal=Science Advances|language=en|volume=3|issue=8|pages=e1701172|doi=10.1126/sciadv.1701172|issn=2375-2548|pmc=5544396|pmid=28798961|bibcode=2017SciA....3E1172G}} The term is most commonly used to describe the manner in which technological companies such as Facebook{{cite web |last1=Brandom |first1=Russell |title=Shadow profiles are the biggest flaw in Facebook's privacy defense |url=https://www.theverge.com/2018/4/11/17225482/facebook-shadow-profiles-zuckerberg-congress-data-privacy |website=The Verge |access-date=29 October 2023 |date=11 April 2018}} collect information related to people who did not willingly provide it to them.{{Cite journal|last1=Debatin|first1=Bernhard|last2=Lovejoy|first2=Jennette P.|last3=Horn|first3=Ann-Kathrin|last4=Hughes|first4=Brittany N.|date=October 2009|title=Facebook and Online Privacy: Attitudes, Behaviors, and Unintended Consequences|journal=Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication|volume=15|issue=1|pages=83–108|doi=10.1111/j.1083-6101.2009.01494.x|issn=1083-6101|doi-access=free}}