Close X
Thursday, November 28, 2024
ADVT 
Tech

Facebook faces action over 'emotion contagion' study

Darpan News Desk Darpan, 05 Jul, 2014 12:42 PM
    US privacy group Electronic Privacy Information Centre (EPIC) has filed a formal complaint with the Federate Trade Commission (FTC) over Facebook's use of user data in its "emotion contagion" study.
     
    "The company purposefully messed with people's minds. Facebook conducted the psychological experiment with researchers at Cornell University and the University of California, San Francisco, who failed to follow standard ethical protocols for human subject research," EPIC said in its complaint.
     
    "Facebook's conduct is both a deceptive trade practice under Section 5 of the FTC Act and a violation of the Commission's 2012 Consent Order," the complaint read.
     
    The emotion study was conducted by researchers in June on nearly 700,000 Facebook users to investigate a phenomenon dubbed as "emotional contagion".
     
    The researchers found that emotional states can spread across social networks.
     
    The research sparked uproar among people who felt the study violated personal privacy.
     
    In its complaint, EPIC also demanded that the FTC conduct a probe into the study and sharing of data without explicit user consent with third-party researchers

    MORE Tech ARTICLES

    Did you find your spouse on Facebook or Twitter?

    Did you find your spouse on Facebook or Twitter?
    If you got married in the last few years, chances are that you may have found your life partner on a social networking site such as Twitter and Facebook - without you actually realising it.

    Did you find your spouse on Facebook or Twitter?

    'Smart' gloves to help soldiers scale vertical walls

    'Smart' gloves to help soldiers scale vertical walls
     If you have seen the movie "Mission Impossible - Ghost Protocol", you can not forget the scene where actor Tom Cruise scales and swings from world's tallest building Burj Khalifa in Dubai wearing adhesive gloves.

    'Smart' gloves to help soldiers scale vertical walls

    Four tomatoes a day may reduce kidney cancer risk

    Four tomatoes a day may reduce kidney cancer risk
    Love tomatoes? You have more reasons to relish them as a tomato-rich diet may lower kidney cancer risk, especially in case of women.

    Four tomatoes a day may reduce kidney cancer risk

    World's first 3D smartphone from Amazon?

    World's first 3D smartphone from Amazon?
    Move over ordinary smartphones as Amazon is reportedly planning to launch the world's first smartphone with a 3D display.

    World's first 3D smartphone from Amazon?

    Soon, robots to behave as humans?

    Soon, robots to behave as humans?
    Robots are good at computational tasks but fail miserably to walk, talk or recognise everyday objects. What if a robot could behave like a human?

    Soon, robots to behave as humans?

    Emotions lead people buy smartphones with bigger screens!

    Emotions lead people buy smartphones with bigger screens!
    People may find bigger screens more emotionally satisfying because they are using smartphones for entertainment as well as for communication purposes, a new research led by an Indian-origin scientist reveals.  

    Emotions lead people buy smartphones with bigger screens!