On one hand, it is a shame to see potentially informative research (such as the drug user study mentioned) stymied, on the other hand I can't help but be please

On one hand, it is a shame to see potentially informative research (such as the drug user study mentioned) stymied, on the other hand I can't help but be pleased with this development. The amount of information Facebook holds on every one of us makes me uncomfortable, and the idea that much of that was available over APIs for anyone to consume is quite concerning. The article includes: > hopes to salvage his project by asking Facebook for access to eight types of data, including photos in which a user is tagged. He hopes to reconstruct a person’s friend network by seeing who they socialize with through their photos. Dr. Crosier says he won’t be able to see the images themselves, just that a user was tagged and by whom. I don't particularly want random researchers to know who I socialise with. If this researcher (who may or may not be well intentioned) can reconstruct my friendship network, so can anyone. It's scary enough that Facebook has this information - it's even scarier that anyone with some Python skills and a basic understanding of APIs can get it too. I'm not often wont to praise Facebook, but I think in this case they are (reluctantly and finally) doing the right thing by restricting data access.