Facebook can be used to work out huge details of your personal life – even if you never actually use it, according to a new study.

一项新研究指出，即使你没有用过脸书，人们也可以通过它了解你个人生活的许多细节。

It is still possible to predict the kind of things you might say simply by looking at the sort of people you hang around with, the new study has found.

这项新研究发现，只需要看看你所交往的朋友的类型，就可以预测你可能会说的事情。

In the research, a team of scientists took more than thirty million public posts on social media from 13,905 users.

在这项研究中，一个科学家团队从社交媒体上的13,905名用户那里收集了3000多万条公开信息。

They found it was possible to use the messages from eight or nine of a person's contacts to predict what a person might post next.

他们发现，通过一个人八或九个联系人发送的信息就可以预测这个人下一次可能会发出的内容。

Even if a person left the social network or never actually joined, researchers can guess a person's future posting or activities with 95 per cent accuracy , the scientists write.

科学家们写道，即使一个人离开社交网络或者从未注册过社交媒体账号，研究人员也能猜到这个人以后会发出什么样的信息，或者会参加什么样的活动，而且其预测的准确率可达95%。

It also means that signing up to a social network like Facebook really means you are handing over possible data on your friends, too, the researchers warn.

研究人员提醒道，这也意味着你注册了像脸书这样的社交媒体账号，你也在透露你朋友们的潜在信息。

"There's no place to hide in a social network," says Lewis Mitchell, a co-author on the new study.

“在社交网络上，人们无处可藏，”这项新研究的共同作者路易斯·米歇尔说道。

"You alone don't control your privacy on social media platforms," said Jim Bagrow. "Your friends have a say too."

“在社交媒体平台上，你自己控制不了你的隐私，”吉姆·巴格罗说道。“你的朋友也有发言权。”

（翻译：Dlacus）