Facebook Vows To Be More Careful When Experimenting With Users
By Melony Roy
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- This summer, Facebook faced backlash for a 2012 study that manipulated the newsfeeds of nearly 700,000 users to find if the changes would affect their emotions.
In a blog post, Facebook vowed to do things "better" and "in the most responsible way" when it comes to experiments on its users. But Drexel cyber security expert Dr. Rob D'ividio says the social network, which hosts over one billion users, needs to go much further.
"There are two big concerns here," D'ividio says, "the first is there is no independent review of the research protocol."
The new panel will include senior level researchers and people from Facebook's engineering, research, legal, privacy and policy teams.
"The second problem with their plan is it lacks any sort of commitment to notify research subjects that they are being studied," D'ividio adds.
Facebook didn't specify what the new guidelines are or whether they will ask users for consent.
"People don't think that the type of research going on through Facebook and other online services as being behavior modification research," D'ividio says.
The company will also add more education and training as well as a research website for its published academic research.
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