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Companies are not required to share data. Have you ever tried getting anonymized network traffic traces from a company for the purpose of analysis? There is a l

Companies are not required to share data. Have you ever tried getting anonymized network traffic traces from a company for the purpose of analysis? There is a lot of open source data available (thanks crawdad.org!!!) but I doubt you will have a private company share data with you if you just go and ask them. The same with Facebook. They're just paranoid that the data will make its way into places it shouldn't. Same with any other company.

mandmandam 5y ago
No one is requiring Facebook share data, though it could easily be argued that they owe us. It's users who install a browser extension that are sharing the ads they were shown. If FB wants to serve people ads, why should they get to stop them sharing those ads with researchers / whoever they want? They claim the FTC is forcing them to, even though the FTC has stated that's untrue. This is fairly open and shut. Facebook are full of shit, quelle surprise.
ardit33 5y ago
I can't blame Facebook on this. Last time they allowed data for research purposes we got the Cambridge Analytica scandal, where that researches fed the data to this consulting company to be used for election purposes... Why should these guys be trusted? "Trust me bro" --- that didn't work well before. FB is right on this one.
- _Algernon_ 5y ago
  Last time the data was accessed through an official API with (at best) dubious consent. This time the data is voluntarily provided by using a client-side extension. Seems quite different, doesn't it?
wolpoli 5y ago
Let's say Facebook produces a newspaper with customized ads for each household. Should households be prevented from mailing their copy of the newspaper to researchers due to privacy concerns of the advertisers? Should Facebook be allowed to stop sending newspaper to the researchers? Should Facebook be allowed to stop providing phone and mailing service for these researchers?
- MikusR 5y ago
  But they are not producing a newspaper with customized ads. They are showing you photos your friends took at the party last weekend. Photos that are shared with you and not with their boss.
  - chandelier 5y ago
    If I am consenting to share with the researchers via Ad Observer the data that Facebook has shared with me, whatever that data is, great. I signed no NDA with Facebook.
    - MikusR 5y ago
      Did all the people you have friended on Facebook also gave permission to give their data to the researchers?
      - Spivak 5y ago
        I wish there was an official name for the fallacy of assuming that a given activity done at any scale are equivalent. You sharing screenshots from your Facebook and an add-on automatically slurping data from millions of people's Facebooks are not at all the same thing. They both might be okay to do but the reason for the latter is because it would be okay to do the former.

mandmandam 5y ago

No one is requiring Facebook share data, though it could easily be argued that they owe us. It's users who install a browser extension that are sharing the ads they were shown. If FB wants to serve people ads, why should they get to stop them sharing those ads with researchers / whoever they want? They claim the FTC is forcing them to, even though the FTC has stated that's untrue. This is fairly open and shut. Facebook are full of shit, quelle surprise.

ardit33 5y ago

I can't blame Facebook on this. Last time they allowed data for research purposes we got the Cambridge Analytica scandal, where that researches fed the data to this consulting company to be used for election purposes... Why should these guys be trusted? "Trust me bro" --- that didn't work well before. FB is right on this one.

_Algernon_ 5y ago
Last time the data was accessed through an official API with (at best) dubious consent. This time the data is voluntarily provided by using a client-side extension. Seems quite different, doesn't it?

wolpoli 5y ago

Let's say Facebook produces a newspaper with customized ads for each household. Should households be prevented from mailing their copy of the newspaper to researchers due to privacy concerns of the advertisers? Should Facebook be allowed to stop sending newspaper to the researchers? Should Facebook be allowed to stop providing phone and mailing service for these researchers?

MikusR 5y ago
But they are not producing a newspaper with customized ads. They are showing you photos your friends took at the party last weekend. Photos that are shared with you and not with their boss.
- chandelier 5y ago
  If I am consenting to share with the researchers via Ad Observer the data that Facebook has shared with me, whatever that data is, great. I signed no NDA with Facebook.
  - MikusR 5y ago
    Did all the people you have friended on Facebook also gave permission to give their data to the researchers?
    - Spivak 5y ago
      I wish there was an official name for the fallacy of assuming that a given activity done at any scale are equivalent. You sharing screenshots from your Facebook and an add-on automatically slurping data from millions of people's Facebooks are not at all the same thing. They both might be okay to do but the reason for the latter is because it would be okay to do the former.