(Note: Read to the bottom if you wish to maintain off-of-Facebook communication with me; Ill be leaving the site because of this.) Just for the record, all those things I said that pissed you off were just Facebook screwing with you. On a more serious note: while this study might be legal it is certainly completely unethical. The guildelines of both psychological and anthropological study require that all participants of any study give their *informed consent*. Simply getting them to check a box saying that they consent to having their data analyzed does not give anybody permission to actually use *them* as the subjects of a study. While many of the things that Facebook has done in the past have been somewhat sketchy from a commercial and technological point of view, this is something completely different. This crosses a line from merely using their users data as something to be analyzed into using the users themselves. It goes against every instance of scientific ethics that I have been taught. It is also extremely irresponsible given the potential for causing extreme psychological stress among the randomly selected population of the test that was *not screened* for possible prior issues. Suicides could have been caused by this study. I will not be a party to such behavior from any company that I use the services of, whether Im paying them for their services or allowing my data to be used as payment. As of tomorrow morning, I will no longer use my Facebook account for communication except for discussion of this article and to set up communications with people that wish to maintain contact through other means. At the end of the week, I will remove all of the content that I have stored here (it will take me about that long to do so, Ive got a lot of photos up) and will delete my account. I encourage all others that place value ethics in scientific and corporate behavior to do the same. If you wish to maintain communication with me outside of Facebook please let me know through the messaging system by the end of the week.
Posted on: Sun, 29 Jun 2014 21:10:19 +0000