Studies Without Consent

A few weeks back, Facebook published a paper describing a study they had performed on 600,000 of their users without informing them. Facebook increased (or decreased) the number of positive or negative terms showing up in the feeds of certain users. Then it monitored those users’ own posts to see if their mood got affected by what they saw (The answer: it did).

The overwhelming reaction, as expected, was fury. John Gruber ranted:

“Yes, this is creepy as hell, and indicates a complete and utter lack of respect for their users’ privacy or the integrity of their feed content.”

But Jesse Singal wondered what Facebook had done differently?

“So the folks who are outraged about Facebook’s complicity in this experiment seem to basically be arguing that it’s okay when Facebook manipulates their emotions to get them to click on stuff more, or for the sake of in-house experiments about how to make content “more engaging” (that is, to find out how to get them to click on stuff more), but not when that manipulation is done in service of a psychological experiment.”

More recently, this dating site, OK Cupid, did a similar study by manipulating some of its users’ profiles e.g. it hid the photo of the good lookers and checked if interest in them remained the same. Obviously it didn’t. Big surprise.

Tim Carmody says such studies violate the basic understanding based on which we signed onto all social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, OKCupid):

“We build our own profiles, we select our favorite pictures, we make our own friends, we friend whatever brands we like, we pick the users we want to block or mute or select for special attention, and we write our own stories. Even the filtering algorithms, we're both told and led to assume, are the product of our choices.”

And that is why Carmody is pissed:

“We are never only these companies' "products," but their producers, too.”

And yet:

“They only treat you as a customer, never a client.”

Carmody’s right. But here’s the thing: online, the rules are getting worked out as we go along. Sort of like the Wild Wild West. We just have to get used to it.