Posted on 07/06/2014 11:01:43 AM PDT by dalight
My colleague Kashmir Hill just reported that Facebook conducted their news feed manipulation four months before the term research was added to their data use policy, she writes:
However, we were all relying on what Facebooks data policy says now. In January 2012, the policy did not say anything about users potentially being guinea pigs made to have a crappy day for science, nor that research is something that might happen on the platform.
Four months after this study happened, in May 2012, Facebook made changes to its data use policy, and thats when it introduced this line about how it might use your information: For internal operations, including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, research and service improvement. Facebook helpfully posted a red-line version of the new policy, contrasting it with the prior version from September 2011 which did not mention anything about user information being used in research.
Kashmirs story is worth reading in full, along with her earlier piece that digs deeper into the ethical and institutional review board issues, including a statement from Cornell saying its IRB passed on reviewing the study because the part involving actual humans was done by Facebook not by the Cornell researcher involved in the study.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
Or ignore their crap. Which I do.
AFAIAC FB is a tool for sharing pics of your dogs, your hobbies, grandchildren etc.
I have suggested to a couple of friends that FB is not the place to demonstrate their conservative ideology. FB/Google are far too leftist and nosy, as well as being a haunting ground of the US intelligence Stasi. After thinking about it, they agreed it was prudent.
Most folks I know pretty much have. But, think deeper. Social networking sites change and morph, but these tactics are available to the operators and now that they are public knowledge, the question is what should be done about it?
Imagine Google shaping the queries you do on their search engine, not just by whom will pay for “placement” but by how they will manipulate your thinking and opinions?
I’d like to drop it, but it’s just about the only place I can chat with my brother, plus I keep (semi-)business contacts with it.
I can’t just drop it completely, also, my best conservative buds are on it.
If Facebook was altering feeds in 2012, were they altering news and headlines in favor of the Democrats for the 2012 election?
I check once in a while to see pics of grand babies. Mostly, otherwise, I am somewhere else.
No, I believe that was up to Candy Crowley and her friends.
There's no such thing as a source for objective news anymore. There's always an agenda and manipulation.
That's why I like FR. Here, people take the story and cut through the biax with open discussion.
I don’t understand the whole “manipulated the newsfeed” thing. But then I only have one “friend” on my facebook, and that is my son. It’s how we pass stuff back and forth when he is out of state.
Lets just say, you were the sort of person who has 300 Facebook friends, instead of just the one. Facebook chooses who's posts you see unless you choose specifically to force it to show you all of the posts that everyone makes..
Its all or what they suggest. This is the game. Then Facebook tailors what it suggests to you based on their "algorithm." If this is set up to filter out posts that would say things to you that they don't like.. they might cut these out, and the things they are pushing, or being paid to push, these magically show up.
But, this is deeper.. as Google uses a very similar system to prioritize what you see as a search result. Such that they could use your interactions doing simple searches to modify your mood, present a biased view of the facts in a specific situation, etc. This is the bigger issue at stake here..
We know and understand the economics that go with search engine optimization and how this pays for these services.. but they can be used just the same to do things that are not just about raising revenue for operations.
Anyone that uses Facebook,Twitter..etc get’s exactly what they paid for.
He’s not the phone-type. It’s easier with the messenger. Other people, yes, I like talking on the phone (and prefer it). Him, it’s different, I can catch him more than I can with a phone.
LOL. I posted on FB that our current President should be promptly and summarily removed from office because he purposely, publicly denies the unique status of United States Citizenship. As the President says, “So sue me!”
“Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia”
As literary political fiction and dystopian science-fiction, Nineteen Eighty-Four is a classic novel in content, plot, and style. Many of its terms and concepts, such as Big Brother, doublethink, thoughtcrime, Newspeak, Room 101, Telescreen, 2 + 2 = 5, and memory hole, have entered everyday use since its publication in 1949.
God help us.
And nobody here ever goes postal on you just because they disagree with you. Oops, considering the number of times I’ve been sliced and diced by those who disagree with me I guess that’s not true.lol
FWIW, I’ve toughened up. The jerks need a place to vent, so I just ignore the direct insult stuff. The problem is when they destroy a discussion thread.
I don’t take it personally. Nor does it particularly upset me.
I do find it amusing in an ironic way that a few here employ the same ad hominum tactics used by the leftists we so abhor.
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