07/08/2014 // West Palm Beach, Florida, US // JusticeNewsFlash // Justice News Flash // (press release)
San Francisco – A privacy watchdog says Facebook has broken the law in violating the privacy rights of users of the social network. As reported by USA TODAY, the Electronic Privacy Information Center filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission alleging that users had been deceived by Facebook conducting a psychological experiment to see the impact news updates on their feeds would have on their emotions without their knowledge or consent.
According to the complaint, “At the time of the experiment, Facebook did not state in the Data Use Policy that user data would be used for research purposes. Facebook also failed to inform users that their personal information would be shared with researchers.”
Facebook has issued a statement responding to the allegations sating, “When someone signs up for Facebook, we’ve always asked permission to use their information to provide and enhance the services we offer. To suggest we conducted any corporate research without permission is complete fiction.”
Some users have protested the experiment online. As noted in the report, Facebook is also facing a similar investigation from regulators in the UK.
This report is provided by Justice News Flash – San Francisco Legal News
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