Facebook 'likes' predict personality

Sexuality, political leanings and even intelligence can be gleaned from the things you choose to "like" on Facebook, a study suggests.

Researchers at Cambridge University used algorithms to predict religion, politics, race and sexual orientation.

The research, published in the journal PNAS, forms surprisingly accurate personal portraits, researchers said.

The findings should "ring alarm bells" for users, privacy campaigners said.

The study used 58,000 volunteers who alongside their Facebook "likes" and demographic information also provided psychometric testing results - designed to highlight personality traits.

The Facebook likes were fed into algorithms and matched with the information from the personality tests.

The algorithms proved 88% accurate for determining male sexuality, 95% accurate in distinguishing African-American from Caucasian-American and 85% for differentiating Republican from Democrat.