This week there have been reports that the regulator the ICO (Information Commissioner's Office) has started to investigate whether Facebook is in breach of the data protection law. This is because it ran a psychological study with a couple of US universities on users without their consent.
Basically the emotion test manipulated the extent to which people were exposed to expressions in news feeds. The findings are more than interesting. They found that by suppressing/delaying negative newsfeeds for example they could reduce the number of negative posts, and vice versa. Apart from the obvious concern about lack of transparency the big question is: what are they intending to do with the findings?
The Facebook business model is based on selling data which their customers freely give up in return for the free, relevant service they enjoy. The manipulation of emotions in real time is clearly a big commercial opportunity for Facebook if you think in terms of stimulating brand purchase,economic feel good factors/ political voting for example, but is having emotions manipulated really part of the deal? A question for the future therefore has to b,e is it really ethical to promote a free service without clearly stating that this may actually restrict your freedom to choose for yourself because someone, behind the scenes, is actually playing with your emotions and helping to dictate what you choose?
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