# Study finds review behavior can expose social links to phishers

_Sunday, August 30, 2026 at 11:00 AM EDT · Science, Security · Latest · Tier 2 — Notable_

![Study finds review behavior can expose social links to phishers — Primary](https://scx2.b-cdn.net/gfx/news/hires/2023/online-reviews-1.jpg)

Researchers analyzing Yelp data found that an attacker could infer 49% of users' social relationships from review behavior while incorrectly identifying 10% of unconnected pairs as linked. At a 20% false-alarm rate, the study found up to 63% of relationships could be identified. The researchers said correlations in review length were a prominent signal and proposed adding carefully designed noise to released data; simulations found that could sometimes make attack returns negative.

## Sources

- [Phys.org](https://phys.org/news/2026-08-length-online-scammers-friends.html)

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Canonical: https://techandbusiness.org/newswire/XMErtw-yw-Gkze-BqL0lqG
Retrieved: 2026-08-30T22:23:23.958Z
Publisher: Tech & Business (techandbusiness.org)