Hongkongers voice privacy fears after Facebook's 'ethically wrong' study
Hong Kong internet users and psychologists have accused Facebook of acting unethically after learning that it secretly manipulated the emotions of its members as part of a psychological experiment.
Hong Kong internet users and psychologists have accused Facebook of acting unethically after learning that it secretly manipulated the emotions of its members as part of a psychological experiment.
They also called for more transparency on the part of the social media giant.
"It's ethically wrong," social worker Daniel Kwan Ka-king, 28, said yesterday. "I'm concerned about my privacy."
Researchers altered the feeds of 689,000 users over one week in November 2012, making them display more positive or more negative posts to see if this would result in more positive or negative postings from other users.
Facebook conducted the research with Cornell University and the University of California, San Francisco, to see if "emotional contagion" spreads across a social network.
Critics of the study, published by the US National Academy of Sciences last month, likened affected users to "lab rats".
"There was no informed consent," said Michael Eason, a professional counsellor with private practice Psychology Resources. "The information … is important, but they didn't go about it in an ethical way."
