Sheryl Sandberg's Facebook, apologized for the secret psychological tests that the company has done to almost 700.000 users 2012. The fact is annoyed by members of the social network, as well as by the experts involved in the matter.
The experiment, revealed by a scientific study published in the March issue of the Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences. The scientific journal reports that Facebook hid "a small percentage" of emotional words from its members' News Feeds, without their knowledge, to test what effect it would have on their posts or "likes".
The statement from Sandberg, deputy CEO of Mark Zuckerberg, είναι ένα σημαντικό γεγονός αφού μέχρι την Τρίτη το κοινωνικό δίκτυο δήλωνε ότι το πείραμα ήταν νόμιμο και το κάλυπταν πλήρως οι terms of the service that its users have accepted. The secret tests will land the company with an investigation by the UK's Information Commissioner, while the study's publishers have said they will investigate whether any breach of ethics has taken place. Psychological experiments with human subjects should inform participants – as well as independents researchers, which Facebook apparently hasn't done, arguing that its terms of service implicitly cover such experiments.
