Earlier this week, I mentioned that back in 2012, a team of Facebook scientists manipulated the news feeds of over 689,000 people to see if online emotions can spread from one person to another. As distasteful as this was, technically the research was legitimate since it was covered under Facebook’s Data Use Policy, which states that by creating a Facebook account, you consent to having your information used for research purposes. But that may not be enough for privacy regulators in several European countries, who are looking into whether the experiment violated local laws that protect users’ information.
The Irish Office of the Data Protection Commissioner has already opened an informal inquiry into the experiment. This is critical, since Facebook’s operations outside of North America are based in Dublin. A spokeswoman with the commissioner’s office says that Facebook has already been sent questions about whether the company got consent from users. If regulators are already asking that question, that’s not a good sign. Facebook has maintained that creating an account amounted to informed consent for the research. The UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office is also looking into the matter, and is coordinating with its Irish counterpart. Apparently European regulators are more skeptical of browse-wrap agreements than their American counterparts; the American Federal Trade Commission has remained silent on the issue so far.
Facebook is in full damage control mode. European policy chief Richard Allan has promised that Facebook is working on “improving our process” based on the criticism it has faced, and chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg told an Indian station that “we clearly communicated badly about this.” The lead researcher on the project, Adam Kramer, admitted last week?that he and his colleagues “failed to clearly state our motivations,” and admitted that any benefits may not have been worth the “anxiety” the project caused.
Whether these incidents will be enough for regulators in Ireland, the UK, and elsewhere in Europe remains to be seen. However, this won’t be the first time that Facebook has been put under the microscope by European regulators. In 2011, it was forced to overhaul its privacy settings after an Irish audit found that they fell short of European privacy standards.
Let us know what you think at the Liberal America Facebook page.
Edited/Published by JA
Darrell Lucus is a radical-lefty Jesus-lover who has been blogging for change for a decade. Follow him on Twitter @DarrellLucus or connect with him on Facebook.
