Take Note, Facebook: How Colleges Are Training Designers To Treat Users Like More Than Lab Rats

Students at MIT, Stanford, and elsewhere are learning to build technology products with user well-being in mind.Facebook sparked outrage this summer when it published results of a study conducted on unwitting users. The study looked at whether people who were shown more positive or negative words in friends' posts would write more positive or negative words themselves, apparently without considering the ethics of manipulating users' emotions. (Indeed, users shown more negative words were more negative in their posts and vice versa.) "Was this designed to create maximum benefits for the end user? I can't really see that anywhere in that research," says Marc Smith, a sociologist who spent 10 years as a researcher at Microsoft. "Where is it saying, 'This is how we will now deal with people who are borderline depressed, we're going to start steering them toward happier stuff?'"Read Full Story Continue reading at 'Fast Company'

[ Fast Company | 2014-11-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
News tagged with: #study conducted #vice versa #end user

Other news stories related to: "Take Note, Facebook: How Colleges Are Training Designers To Treat Users Like More Than Lab Rats"


Take Note, Facebook: How Colleges Are Training Designers To Treat Users Like More Than Lab Rats

Students at MIT, Stanford, and elsewhere are learning to build technology products with user well-being in mind.Facebook sparked outrage this summer when it published results of a study conducted on unwitting users. The study looked at whether people who were shown more positive or negative... Continue reading at Fast Company

[ Fast Company | 2014-11-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #end user #vice versa #study conducted


How Facebook is designing for an incoming avalanche of dead users

A new study finds that by 2050, the dead will outnumber the living on Facebook. Here’s how the company is designing user experiences to face the billions of dead users to come. By 2050, the dead will outnumber the living on Facebook. That’s a conservative estimate, according to a study... Continue reading at Fast Company

[ Fast Company | 2019-05-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #study published #study finds #conservative estimate


Facebook Wants to Be a Newspaper. Facebook Users Have Their Own Ideas.

It's tough to make everyone happy. Can Facebook reconcile its high-minded design ideals with the interests of users and publishers? Continue reading at AllThingsD

[ AllThingsD | 2013-12-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #facebook users


Music Is in the Air for Facebook and Instagram Users in More European Markets

Facebook is bringing its music and related interactive video features to more markets in Europe. Music publishing business development lead for Europe, the Middle East and Africa Ella Kirby said in a blog post that music on Facebook and Instagram is now available in Denmark, Finland, Iceland,... Continue reading at AdWeek

[ AdWeek | 2019-10-17 15:45:27 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #publishing business #middle east #european markets


The Groups Where Thousands of Facebook Users Ask for Money

Peer-to-peer aid groups have become a lifeline for those who can’t cover small expenses. Continue reading at The Atlantic

[ The Atlantic | 2019-06-10 12:36:21 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #facebook users


Government Requests for Facebook User Data Rose 7% in the Second Half of 2018

Facebook received 110,634 government requests for user data in the second half of 2018, up 7% from 103,815 in the first half of 2018, according to its latest Transparency Report, which was released Thursday. The social network said the uptick in the second half of last year was normal compared... Continue reading at AdWeek

[ AdWeek | 2019-05-23 23:00:44 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #user data #government requests


The Amount of Fake Accounts Removed From Facebook This Year Nearly Equals Its Number of Total Active Users

Facebook disabled more than 2 billion fake accounts on Facebook in the first quarter of 2019 alone, nearly the same amount of total monthly active users the company has, the company said Thursday in a report about how it is enforcing its platform rules. The company pulled almost 2.2 billion fake... Continue reading at AdWeek

[ AdWeek | 2019-05-23 20:09:09 UTC ]
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Some Facebook users can’t turn off face recognition, study suggests (updated)

Consumer Reports filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission after finding that 8 out of 31 test accounts lacked the ability to turn off facial recognition. Updated 5/20 7:30 p.m. PST with Facebook comment.Read Full Story Continue reading at Fast Company

[ Fast Company | 2019-05-20 18:15:48 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #facebook comment #facial recognition #face recognition #facebook users


Inside Facebook's New Robotics Lab, Where AI and Machines Friend One Another

The social network has a plan to merge the worlds of artificial intelligence and real-world machines, so that both may grow more powerful. Continue reading at Wired

[ Wired | 2019-05-20 10:30:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #artificial intelligence #inside facebook


Facebook uploaded email contacts of 1.5m users without consent

Company says it has stopped using password verification feature that collected data Facebook has admitted to “unintentionally” uploading the address books of 1.5 million users without consent, and says it will delete the collected data and notify those affected.The discovery follows criticism of... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2019-04-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Hundreds of millions of Facebook user records exposed on Amazon cloud servers

Facebook Inc. user data is still showing up in places it shouldn’t. Researchers at UpGuard, a cybersecurity firm, found troves of user information hiding in plain sight, inadvertently posted publicly on Amazon.com Inc.’s cloud computing servers. The discovery shows that a year after the... Continue reading at Baltimore Sun

[ Baltimore Sun | 2019-04-03 20:45:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #plain sight #user data


Facebook considering hiring editors to pick quality news for users

Mark Zuckerberg also said he is weighing up paying publishers for use of their journalismFacebook could start employing editors to select “high-quality news” to show to users, in the social network’s latest attempt to lose its reputation as a source for disinformation.Mark Zuckerberg said he is... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2019-04-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #latest attempt #mark zuckerberg #hiring editors


Facebook left ‘hundreds of millions’ of users’ passwords stored in plain text

Facebook Inc. said Thursday that it had left “hundreds of millions” of users’ passwords exposed in plain text, potentially visible to the company’s employees, marking another major privacy and security headache for a tech giant already under fire for mishandling people’s personal... Continue reading at Baltimore Sun

[ Baltimore Sun | 2019-03-21 20:35:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #personal information #mishandling people #tech giant #security headache #major privacy #potentially visible #passwords exposed #left hundreds #plain text #passwords stored


Facebook left ‘hundreds of millions’ of users’ passwords stored in plain text

Facebook Inc. said Thursday that it had left “hundreds of millions” of users’ passwords exposed in plain text, potentially visible to the company’s employees, marking another major privacy and security headache for a tech giant already under fire for mishandling people’s personal... Continue reading at Baltimore Sun

[ Baltimore Sun | 2019-03-21 20:35:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #personal information #mishandling people #tech giant #security headache #major privacy #potentially visible #passwords exposed #left hundreds #plain text #passwords stored


Several apps funnel users’ sensitive data to Facebook without consent, report says

Several phone apps are sending sensitive user data, including health information, to Facebook Inc. without users’ consent, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal. An analytics tool called App Events enables app developers to record user activity and report it back to Facebook even... Continue reading at Baltimore Sun

[ Baltimore Sun | 2019-02-22 22:40:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #phone apps #sensitive data


Several apps funnel users’ sensitive data to Facebook without consent, report says

Several phone apps are sending sensitive user data, including health information, to Facebook Inc. without users’ consent, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal. An analytics tool called App Events enables app developers to record user activity and report it back to Facebook even... Continue reading at Baltimore Sun

[ Baltimore Sun | 2019-02-22 22:40:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #phone apps #sensitive data


Facebook decided which users are interested in Nazis — and let advertisers target them directly

Facebook makes money by charging advertisers to reach just the right audience for their message — even when that audience is made up of people interested in the perpetrators of the Holocaust or explicitly neo-Nazi music. Despite promises of greater oversight following past advertising... Continue reading at Baltimore Sun

[ Baltimore Sun | 2019-02-21 13:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #greater oversight #charging advertisers #advertisers target #facebook decided #people interested


Facebook decided which users are interested in Nazis — and let advertisers target them directly

Facebook makes money by charging advertisers to reach just the right audience for their message — even when that audience is made up of people interested in the perpetrators of the Holocaust or explicitly neo-Nazi music. Despite promises of greater oversight following past advertising... Continue reading at Baltimore Sun

[ Baltimore Sun | 2019-02-21 13:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #greater oversight #charging advertisers #advertisers target #facebook decided #people interested


Facebook users cannot avoid location-based ads, investigation finds

No combination of settings can stop location data being used by advertisers, says reportFacebook targets users with location-based adverts even if they block the company from accessing GPS on their phones, turn off location history in the app, hide their work location on their profile and never... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2018-12-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Facebook e-mails reveal Zuckerberg deliberations on user data

Facebook is being accused by U.K. lawmakers of offering access to its users and their data based on the amount of money a prospective partner would spend, following the latest document dump painting its leadership team in a potentially unflattering light.On Wednesday, British lawmaker Damian... Continue reading at Advertising Age

[ Advertising Age | 2018-12-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #including correspondence #internal emails #leadership team #user data #offering access