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This makes no sense to me. The algorithms employed by Facebook, OkCupid et al. are not published and presumably changed regularly both to better serve their use
by barnabee 12y ago
This makes no sense to me. The algorithms employed by Facebook, OkCupid et al. are not published and presumably changed regularly both to better serve their users and to advance commercial imperatives - apparently this is OK but if you measure the outcomes and call it an experiment it's not?
I don't buy this, as long as all representations made to customers about the service are met, it seems perfectly reasonable to tweak the already unknown algorithms behind the scenes for whatever reason.
- pdkl95 12y ago> as long as all representations made to customers about the service are met Exactly this. The thing that some people seem to be missing is that there is a (very) good chance nothing is banned. It's just that you have to actually ask the customer. And IRB could waive a lot of the usual requirements (that are primarily intended for experiments with a LOT more risk). The Common Rule, in these cases, is primarily about enforcing that stuff like a boilerplate EULA does not count as properly informing the customer and getting their approval. When humans are involved you have to get explicit approval each time as a precaution, which isn't actually that hard.