A Review of Quibblo, a Quiz Creating Tool, and A Quiz: How Facebook Savvy Are You?

This is the second in a series of articles discussing the privacy implications of Internet Quizzes.  The first, The Dangers of Internet Quizzes, is available at https://techlaurels.blogspot.com/2017/05/the-dangers-of-internet-quizzes.html

Quibblo: A Review

WWW.Quibblo.com

NOTE: Our quiz  (see the bottom of this page) is hosted over on Quibblo.  Quibblo is supposed to be a free source for creating quizzes that can easily be shared on Social Media.  If you are following the "journey" of this blog, I originally headed over to Quibblo to investigate its use as a resource.  Supposedly, you can embed the finished quizzes on your blogs or Social Media Pages, and several sources touted it as a good resource for bloggers. My research does not necessarily concur.

Quibblo is supposed to generate content that is easy to share and easy to embed, either on your own web site or on one of the major blogging platforms.  And quizzes can be good traffic generators for Social Media. Before you start, Quibblo promises your creation efforts will be rewarded with a widget in the sidebar to help you share, embed, or promote your content. But alas, the promised code-generating widget is absent in all three browsers!  I have contacted Quibblo to see how to get the embed code.  I will update this post when I hear back.  In the meanwhile,  the quiz is linked from the bottom of this post.  That, of course is NOT the ideal situation. Generated content should be as easy to embed as the giveaway widget featured on our giveaway post.  It is not.

This post was going to be a fun quiz about Facebook Savviness.  But it evolved as I was developing the quiz and writing the post.  The quiz is no longer the highlight of this article.  Rather, the post transformed into a warning about these quiz generators, and a review of Quibblo specifically.  I am kind of sorry my research lead me to consider Quibblo as a good option.

I have spent an hour poking around in three different browsers, both logged in and as a guest. Quibblo requires a user to register before being able to view the quiz results.  That is a negative.  The fact it promises features before sign-up that do not appear to be available after you  spend time creating your quiz is another negative.

You can only edit a typo for 20 minutes.  After that, you have to delete the quiz and start it from scratch.  There is no way to "clone " a test.  AND if you do edit, it resets your "correct" answer to the 1st choice, regardless of if that's the CORRECT choice, or the one you initially set as correct.  You can end up with a published quiz having a wrong answer showing as correct.

I can find no easy way to "share" the quiz to Facebook except by sharing my own results. Another negative.  And Quibblo's terms and privacy policies are the biggest negative of all. In fact, Quibblo seems to require the exact behaviors of which a savvy Facebook user should be wary.  

Quibblo claims to be a Social Service:

At Quibblo we are dedicated to building a world class technology platform that enables our users to create quizzes, polls and surveys and to then share, syndicate and distribute their creations and answers. Quibblo is not a traditional social network, but rather a distributed platform that enables users to collect valuable input from the broader community where others are able to weigh in on the topics that interest them, be it here at Quibblo.com or on any site that uses our technology. (From their "About" page.)

In fact, their about page is full of butterflies and sunshine type copy.  But they make their money from showing you ads.  Their privacy policy makes that clear.

Websites. Quibblo may set a cookie on your computer when you view advertisements delivered on Publisher websites. After a cookie is set, Quibblo may track how you interact with the advertisement and the Publisher website (for example, registering, purchasing, browsing, etc.).

They are also pretty clear about buying and selling your information:

How we use and share the information we collect.

2.1 Discretion to Use Information. Information voluntarily provided to Quibblo or lawfully obtained by Quibblo is the property of Quibblo and may be used by Quibblo for any lawful purpose, including the sale, lease or transfer of the information to Publishers, advertisers and data aggregators, for marketing purposes. If you wish to end your email subscription with us or one of our Publishers, you may follow the instructions at the end of each email message to unsubscribe or follow the instructions detailed at Section 4 below.

2.2 Targeted Advertising and Information. Quibblo may use Individual Information to target advertising and other information, such as business, weather, entertainment, sports and general news alerts and similar information, more effectively. When an individual is online, Quibblo may use Technology Information to associate an individual with their Individual Information and Quibblo attempts to show information and advertising for products and services to which the person may respond. Quibblo may use data collected from a response to one type of advertising or information for targeting advertisements or other information through a different venue. For example, Quibblo may notice that you responded to a baseball banner advertisement and use that response to deliver a baseball-related advertisement and other information to you.

2.3 Legal Process. Quibblo may disclose Individual Information to respond to subpoenas, court orders and other legal process as required by law.

2.4 Summary Data. Quibblo may sell or transfer non-individualized information, such as summary or aggregated anonymous information about all persons or sub-groups of persons.

Their Terms of Service (TOS) also make it pretty clear they're planning on selling your information to marketers.

CONSENT TO ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS AND EMAIL SOLICITATION

When you register for Services, you hereby agree that Quibblo.com may provide you with information, direct marketing, online and offline advertising and other materials regarding products, services and other offers from time to time and we may share your information with third parties for marketing purposes, unless you opt out, as described in our Privacy Policy. Such solicitations may take the form of email messages, surveys, displayed advertisements or other means of communication including automated means. Solicitations will be made to the contact information provided to us in the registration process. COMPLETE INFORMATION ABOUT THE COLLECTION AND USE OF YOUR INFORMATION IS AVAILABLE IN OUR PRIVACY POLICY AT http://www.quibblo.com/privacy.

And although all their FAQs, site come-ons, and pre-registration copy encourages semi-commercial use, including joining as a "business," their TOS actually prohibits this:

NON COMMERCIAL USE BY MEMBERS

The Site is for the personal use of individual Users only and may not be used in connection with any commercial endeavors. Organizations, companies, and/or businesses may not become members and should not use the Service or the Site for any purpose. Illegal and/or unauthorized uses of the Site, including collecting usernames and/or email addresses of members by electronic or other means for the purpose of sending unsolicited email and unauthorized framing of or linking to the Site will be investigated, and appropriate legal action will be taken, including without limitation, civil, criminal, and injunctive redress.

This, despite the fact they encourage all to join:

    Anyone age 18 or older with a valid email address can join Quibblo. We cannot legally allow children under the age of 18 to create or maintain memberships with us.

I actually find it ironic that I used Quibblo to create a quiz on Facebook Savviness.  Quibblo's terms of service include all the types of things a privacy-minded Facebook User should avoid.  And although Quibblo does not appear to do anything more than collect your information, both to tailor ads to you and to sell to other marketers, they are pretty clear you're giving up your information in exchange for some meaningless quiz results.

NOTE: Quibblo replied that they have "disabled" all embedding and sharing features.  So, their FAQs are basically totally false.  This makes me suspect them even further.  My quiz is pretty tame, and requires you give up little information.  However, it DOES require registering with Quibblo, so at the very least, you are giving up basic personal information in exchange for viewing quiz results.  

Do I Recommend Quibblo?

I cannot in good conscience recommend Quibblo to anyone but the most casual blogger.  They are clear about owning anything you do on their service.  That includes the data you collect through their quizzes.  And although they advertise themselves as "Perfect for Teachers," their privacy policies are antithetical to those of Federal and Local School Systems.

But if you are one who likes to take Social Media Quizzes, Quibblo is no worse than any of the others.  These services are "free" so they can make money from YOUR personal information.  If you take a lot of these things, you've already given all of this information up.  And the way I look at it, if I have to see ads, I'd rather see relevant ones.  I give up a lot of marketing data in exchange for free samples.  Quibblo isn't giving anyone anything they do not already have from me.

And I saw no signs of malware-planting ads, on-site malware, or rampant pop-ups.  So although I cannot recommend Quibblo, I won't tell you to avoid it either.  It's not a "bad" site.  It's just of limited utility for a small business or a professional blogger.

Should You Take Our Quiz?

That is totally up to you.  As I said, you will not get any malware from visiting Quibblo.  You WILL get tracking cookies, and probably an increase in marketing mail.  And if you've taken other Social Media quizzes, well, they already have your info.  There are probably tracking cookies following you around the web already.  You have nothing to lose by taking yet another quiz.  However, if you are at all privacy conscious, you should probably avoid MOST internet quizzes hosted on Social Media, as well as those hosted on sites like Quibblo.  If you've already taken a slew of facebook quizzes, another isn't going to matter either way.

Stay tuned for Part Three of this series, which will examine another quiz site's Terms and Policies, and will further examine the privacy implications of such sites for both you and your friends.

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Take Our Quiz to See Just How Tech Savvy You Are!

http://www.quibblo.com/quiz/c2eY-zPW/How-Facebook-Savvy-Are-You

http://techlaurels.polldaddy.com/s/how-facebook-savvy-are-you

Facebook can be a great way to keep in touch with friends, musicians, businesses, and even corporations. But it can also suck you into spreading spam, scams, and fake news. How Facebook Savvy are you? Take this quiz to find out. (Note: This quiz is just for fun.) 

This quiz is now available on a much SAFER site; please take it at http://techlaurels.polldaddy.com/s/how-facebook-savvy-are-you, rather than on Quibblo.  I am happy to see how few hits it has gotten there!

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Thoughts?

What are your thoughts on Quibblo?  On giving up your information to marketers?  About trading personal data for samples or services?  Tell us your thoughts, either in the comments or on our Facebook Page.