Facebook's News Feed mood manipulation study

Discussion in 'other software & services' started by MrBrian, Jun 29, 2014.

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  1. hawki

    hawki Registered Member

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    Privacy watchdog files Federal Trade Commission complaint over Facebook emotion experiment

    "Facebook could face an investigation by the US Federate Trade Commission (FTC) over its use of user data in the controversial “emotion contagion” experiment.

    The US privacy pressure group the Electronic Privacy Information Centre (Epic) has filed a complaint with FTC demanding that the watchdog investigate Facebook’s actions.

    "The company purposefully messed with people's minds," states Epic in the complaint. “Facebook conducted the psychological experiment with researchers at Cornell University and the University of California, San Francisco, who failed to follow standard ethical protocols for human subject research.”

    The study conducted over one week in 2012 and published in the Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences, hid "a small percentage" of emotional words from peoples' news feeds, without their knowledge, to test what effect that had on the statuses or "likes" that they then posted or reacted to....

    Facebook’s conduct is both a deceptive trade practice under Section 5 of the FTC Act and a violation of the Commission’s 2012 Consent Order,” the complaint continues.
    The FTC Act prohibits “unfair and deceptive” acts and practices, which Epic alleges Facebook’s actions within the Cornell study countermand.......
    .
    Epic demands that Facebook makes public the NewsFeed algorithm

    As well as demanding that the FTC conducts an investigation into the study and sharing of data without explicit user consent with third-party researchers at Cornell University, Epic demands that Facebook makes public the proprietary algorithm that produces the NewsFeed."

    Full Story: http://www.theguardian.com/technolo...es-complaint-over-facebook-emotion-experiment
     
  2. SweX

    SweX Registered Member

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    http://www.welivesecurity.com/2014/07/07/facebook-epic-ftc-complaint-emtional-research-privacy/

     
  3. Gullible Jones

    Gullible Jones Registered Member

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    Hefty, really? Twenty million or so is a slap on the wrist. They'll just keep doing it, and be a little more careful next time.

    In any case I think Facebook's actions were
    a) irresponsible, unethical, and disgusting
    b) bode horrible things for the future

    But what else is new, this is how every large corporation behaves.

    (c.f. for instance Monsanto. "We want our nicotinoid pesticide profits RIGHT NOW, dammit, even if it means everyone starves!")
     
  4. MrBrian

    MrBrian Registered Member

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  5. siljaline

    siljaline Registered Member

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    ~ 10 Other Facebook Experiments On Users, Rated On A Highly-Scientific WTF Scale ~
    http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2014/07/10/facebook-experiments-on-users/
     
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