Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) faces user outrage over Secret Psychological Experiment

Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) users have been subjected to a secret Psychological Experiment. A recently published study mentioned the use of Facebook News Feed in an experiment carried out in January 2014. Although Facebook Inc( NASDAQ:FB) may be well within their rights to do the experiment, Facebook has been strongly criticized by its users for doing so.

The purpose of this experiment was to reveal the impact of social media on an individual’s mental state. This research will prove highly effective and efficient from the view of advertisers. But the study has led to a backlash from Facebook users which has led to a formal apology from Facebook Inc.

Academic protocols typically require researchers to get the consent of subjects, but Facebook researchers considered relevant clauses in the terms of service and data use policy that users adhere to when they signup to use Facebook as sufficient.

Facebook’s News Feed Experiment

Researchers from Cornell University, the University of California, San Francisco, and Facebook used around 600,000 of Facebook Users News Feed to carry out this psychological experiment. The News Feed was modified to view the positives or the negative emotion of a friend’s post. User’s reaction was then judged accordingly so as to find if there was any co-relation. This experiment has stirred an outcry among the Facebook’s users who have called this “creepy” and “unethical”.

Facebook however maintained that the given research study was well within the Privacy policy of Facebook. Facebook further said that they had taken User consent before the experiment was carried out. Facebook, Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) ascertains that data were interpreted only by machines and no personal information had been viewed by human researchers, thereby allowing Facebook to remain within regulations.

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Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) Business News

Facebook Inc. (Nasdaq: FB) stock has been logging impressive gains, up nearly 24% year to date and an astonishing 172% in the past year. Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) have been in the news for the positive reasons for the most parts of the last year. Such news of scandal may however lead to decrease in usage causing problems to the stock’s image.

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