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What in the hell was Facebook thinking when they approved this study?

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout' started by KingCheetah, Jul 2, 2014.

  1. KingCheetah

    KingCheetah Contributing Member

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    How many folks with depression got additional 'sad' content on their feed -- what if this led to deeper depression or something as severe as suicide? Informed consent for a massive psychological study is not part of FB's TOS as they claim.
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    Facebook’s manipulation of user emotions may face European probes

    Facebook is facing potential investigations in Europe after it disclosed last week that it deliberately manipulated the emotional content of the news feeds by changing the posts displayed to nearly 700,000 users to see if emotions were contagious.

    The company did not seek explicit permission from the affected people — roughly 1 out of every 2,500 users of the social network at the time of the experiment — and some critics have suggested that the research violated its terms of service with its customers. Facebook has said that customers gave blanket permission for research as a condition of using the service.

    In response to widespread public anger, several European data protection agencies are examining whether Facebook broke local privacy laws when it conducted the weeklong investigation in January 2012.

    That includes Ireland’s Office of the Data Protection Commissioner, which regulates Facebook’s global operations outside North America because the company has its international headquarters in Dublin. The Irish regulator has sent a series of questions to Facebook related to potential privacy issues, including whether the company got consent from users for the study, according to a spokeswoman.

    The Information Commissioner’s Office of Britain also said that it was looking into potential privacy breaches that may have affected the country’s residents, though a spokesman of the office said that it was too early to know whether Facebook had broken the law.

    “We’re aware of this issue, and will be speaking to Facebook, as well as liaising with the Irish data protection authority, to learn more about the circumstances,” a spokesman for the British regulator said in a statement.

    Neither regulator, however, has launched an official investigation into Facebook’s practices.

    In the study, Facebook changed the number of positive and negative posts that some users saw in their feeds to gauge how emotions can affect social media.

    Richard Allan, Facebook’s director of policy in Europe, said that it was clear that people had been upset by the study.

    “We want to do better in the future and are improving our process based on this feedback,” he said in a statement. “The study was done with appropriate protections for people’s information, and we are happy to answer any questions regulators may have.”

    The Federal Trade Commission, the US regulator that oversees Facebook’s conduct under a 20-year consent decree, has not publicly expressed similar interest in the case, which has caused an uproar over the company’s ethics and prompted the lead researcher on the project to apologize.

    link
     
  2. Dairy Ashford

    Dairy Ashford Member

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    No one's replacing Facebook, at least not anyone that wouldn't also pull this. The study's over and they already have the metrics.
     
  3. heypartner

    heypartner Contributing Member

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    All I can add is you don't f!ck with German Privacy Laws. They take that very seriously.

    I laugh at my client's Security Directors who question whether our German data centers are secure, and that they might not be able to house their data there. I'm like,,,the US is about the most egregious country for allowing authorities to seize your data...and companies like Facebook to do this.
     
  4. REEKO_HTOWN

    REEKO_HTOWN I'm Rich Biiiiaaatch!

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    Nothing is free.
     
    1 person likes this.
  5. da_juice

    da_juice Member

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    They did it because they can and because most govts (short of some european ones apparently) could care less.
     
  6. Mr. Brightside

    Mr. Brightside Contributing Member

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    Most kids/teens these days aren't even using FB as much anymore. They have all moved over to things like Instagram and Snapchat. In five years, Facebook will go the way of Myspace.
     
  7. fallenphoenix

    fallenphoenix Contributing Member

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    "If you're not paying for something, you're not the customer; you're the product being sold."
     
  8. REEKO_HTOWN

    REEKO_HTOWN I'm Rich Biiiiaaatch!

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    Except it seems like more adults and older folks are joining Facebook in droves and guess what? That's the target market. People with money.
     
  9. heypartner

    heypartner Contributing Member

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    This ain't happening. There is a huge gaming community on FB. FB is way beyond regular social networks.
     
  10. Invisible Fan

    Invisible Fan Contributing Member

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    Other companies pull this kind of crap too. They just don't gleefully make public studies about it.

    See yelp reviews....
     
  11. bobmarley

    bobmarley Contributing Member

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    Gotta get your farmville on eh? Is that keeps sending me invites? Cut it out.
     
  12. oelman44

    oelman44 Member

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    Eh, kind of. Virtually everyone in high school and college have face books, they just don't use them as much because everything on their is so public. Less people have Snapchat and Instagram, but those that do use them much more than they do Facebook.
     
  13. Mr. Brightside

    Mr. Brightside Contributing Member

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    Teens are dropping FB like a rock. They are the most important factor in determining social media trends. They are the trend setters in most all regards of society. One of the main reasons the teens are leaving FB is for the very reason you mentioned that their parents and grandparents are now joining the site. No socially savvy teen wants to be a part of that.

    Look at this chart.

    [​IMG]
     
  14. heypartner

    heypartner Contributing Member

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    I don't think your chart shows that at all.

    Your chart is a poll of what they prefer to use. It has nothing to do with whether they dropped it or not.

    Facebook is leaps and bounds beyond anything that Instagram and Twitter can do, and light years past Myspace. It's a whole application platform.

    The Gaming Industry considers it one of their top new target platforms. They won't go away. Don't bet on it. There is too much Game Industry money going into it.

    Plus, I'm sure that is only US teens...not World wide teens. You see...Instagram and Twitter are much easier to copy than Facebook.

     
  15. TheRealist137

    TheRealist137 Member

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    Facebook sucks now. The only thing it is good for is invitations.
     
  16. Mr. Brightside

    Mr. Brightside Contributing Member

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    Hey brah. Just sent you a fifth Farmville invite and eighth Candy Crush invite. Why don't you just accept and stop being a little punk.
     
  17. rhadamanthus

    rhadamanthus Contributing Member

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    The government actually paid for some of it. From the delightfully named Minerva Program.
     
  18. Space Ghost

    Space Ghost Contributing Member

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    Facebook follows the money, not the trends. Facebook continues to evolve at time goes on. As long as they keep their core brains, Facebook will continue to dominate. Its about vision. This is what keep Google and Apple going.

    Asking what social media will prevail vs if Facebook will continue to do well is two very different questions. You're an idiot if you believe Facebook will be gone in 5 years. Facebook is the strongest marketing machine out there.
     
  19. A_3PO

    A_3PO Member

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    Just stop it: Facebook is far beyond any comparison to MySpace. Give that up. I don't like FB and haven't signed in since 2011. It's no longer "cool" and my son has moved on to Twitter, Instagram and others. Wife still uses it daily. But it's here to stay and barring some unforeseen event/scandal that is catastrophic to it's business model, FB will have a very long, successful run.
     
  20. SwoLy-D

    SwoLy-D Contributing Member

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