Facebook Demands Shutdown of Research Project Into Its Targeting of Political Ads (morningstar.com) 41
"Facebook Inc. is demanding that a New York University research project cease collecting data about its political-ad targeting practices," reports the Wall Street Journal, "setting up a fight with academics seeking to study the platform without the company's permission."
The dispute involves the NYU Ad Observatory, a project launched last month by the university's engineering school that has recruited more than 6,500 volunteers to use a specially designed browser extension to collect data about the political ads Facebook shows them. In a letter sent October 16 to the researchers behind the NYU Ad Observatory, Facebook said the project violates provisions in its terms of service that prohibit bulk data collection from its site. "Scraping tools, no matter how well-intentioned, are not a permissible means of collecting information from us," said the letter, written by a Facebook privacy policy official, Allison Hendrix. If the university doesn't end the project and delete the data it has collected, she wrote, "you may be subject to additional enforcement action...."
Facebook said it already offers more transparency into political advertising than either traditional media or rival social platforms, and that the automated collection of data from users' on-platform activity — even with their permission — poses an unacceptable privacy threat... What limitations on social media data scraping are enforceable has been the subject of litigation in recent years, with platforms arguing they have both a right and responsibility to prevent the unauthorized use of user-generated data.
The NYU project has already collected the targeting data behind more than 200,000 ads. Researchers say it has exposed areas where the publicly available archive of political ads Facebook created after the 2016 election is failing to log advertisements that should be in the system. Facebook said it has appreciated the NYU researchers' efforts to improve the ad library, but won't stand for violations of its rules. Laura Edelson, a researcher at NYU's Tandon School of Engineering who helps oversee the Ad Observatory project, said, "The only thing that would prompt us to stop doing this would be if Facebook would do it themselves, which we have called on them to do...."
The article also includes a reaction from the associate director of Georgetown's Institute for Data, Democracy, and Politics. "There's far too much critical information closed up behind Facebook's walled garden. And efforts like the Ad Observatory play a critical role in breaking down those walls."
Facebook said it already offers more transparency into political advertising than either traditional media or rival social platforms, and that the automated collection of data from users' on-platform activity — even with their permission — poses an unacceptable privacy threat... What limitations on social media data scraping are enforceable has been the subject of litigation in recent years, with platforms arguing they have both a right and responsibility to prevent the unauthorized use of user-generated data.
The NYU project has already collected the targeting data behind more than 200,000 ads. Researchers say it has exposed areas where the publicly available archive of political ads Facebook created after the 2016 election is failing to log advertisements that should be in the system. Facebook said it has appreciated the NYU researchers' efforts to improve the ad library, but won't stand for violations of its rules. Laura Edelson, a researcher at NYU's Tandon School of Engineering who helps oversee the Ad Observatory project, said, "The only thing that would prompt us to stop doing this would be if Facebook would do it themselves, which we have called on them to do...."
The article also includes a reaction from the associate director of Georgetown's Institute for Data, Democracy, and Politics. "There's far too much critical information closed up behind Facebook's walled garden. And efforts like the Ad Observatory play a critical role in breaking down those walls."
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Oh gosh (Score:5, Interesting)
In this case however the overriding public interest seems so obvious, plus the current administration's jihad against social media's 'anti-Trump bias' - it's totally an uphill battle for Facebook.
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Well, sure, it's about money - the TOS of most services prohibit scraping because it sidesteps how they monetize the content.
You can TOS all the "dont do this" you want, does not make it illegal.
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It doesn't make it illegal, but does give a legally justifiable reason for terminating all their access.
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It doesn't make it illegal, but does give a legally justifiable reason for terminating all their access.
If it were that easy, why would facebook then demand the project to stop instead of just turning the accounts off? (not rhetorical. sincerely asking.)
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a) it may be part of their procedures for violations of TOS that a warning be sent first.
b) just turning off the accounts without explanation might increase the likelihood of continuation of the behavior on other accounts
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a) it may be part of their procedures for violations of TOS that a warning be sent first. b) just turning off the accounts without explanation might increase the likelihood of continuation of the behavior on other accounts
a) I haven't read the TOS of facebook, but I doubt that it contains anything about sending a notification to an organization and/or research project itself. I am quite sure that, like almost all TOS's I have read, there is something in there about immediate termination of an account/accounts.
b) If it's a research project, turning off accounts wouldn't influence more of the same behavior. It would encourage the same, I would imagine. As research usually needs a controlled type and amount of data. Without it
Re:Oh gosh (Score:5, Informative)
Exactly. Besides which, NYU isn’t doing any scraping: they’re providing a tool that volunteers are using to retrieve their own data, which is then being furnished to NYU with the users’ explicit, informed consent. Users have the right to report the data they receive if they should want to. Facebook would be hard pressed to argue that NYU is actually doing anything here.
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But is this scraping? When I think of scraping, I usually think of someone executing a script that submits many calls to API endpoints for themselves or on behalf of a consenting end user for the specific purpose of gathering as much data as possible. According to the story's description, it appears that the browser extension is relaying the ad data that Facebook sends to the user's browser as that user browses Facebook in a natural
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Re:Oh gosh (Score:5, Insightful)
If it was user privacy they were concerned with, the information the researchers need would be locked down. They wouldn't have to demand the research be shutdown because the research wouldn't be possible.
So clearly their problem is that the researchers are going to reveal things Facebook is doing that Facebook doesn't want people to know about.
Add a âoeshareâ button for ads? (Score:1)
LOL (Score:5, Insightful)
Cuckerberg is really pissed off when his tactics are employed against him, isn't he? Especially if there is a risk FB's dirty money-making schemes are exposed in the process.
So they can target us but not vice versa? (Score:5, Insightful)
Facebook never fails to amaze me. They collect, mine, and profit off collecting a metric ton of data about each user but when someone shines the light on them, they rush to court. To hell with them and their blatant hypocrisy.
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There is an AC in another topic that would call you a conspiracy theorist for claiming that an Internet-based company is exploiting it's users to make itself piles of money.
I actually agree with you.
Oh my (Score:5, Insightful)
"setting up a fight with academics seeking to study the platform without the company's permission."
They don't need your permission to study what they want, so fuck you!
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Nonsense... (Score:2)
The âoeuserâ in this case is the person who installed the browser app and by extension the university that supplied the app and ultimately uses the data. This is obvious. But where TOSâ(TM)s try to control information that is freely available on the internet, it has in the past been generally unenforceable.
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The âoeuserâ in this case is the person who installed the browser app and by extension the university that supplied the app and ultimately uses the data. This is obvious. But where TOSâ(TM)s try to control information that is freely available on the internet, it has in the past been generally unenforceable.
No, the second part is not obvious. The user can break the terms of service, yes. The university who provides the browser extension does not, in providing it, have any contract with Facebook which they are breaking.
The development of that extension, however, presumably needed someone who had access (and thus had agreed to the TOS) at the time of development so they’d know what to scrape. So perhaps there’s an angle there.
Or perhaps it’s some kind of DMCA claim or something. I have no idea,
Sounds like a patent to me (Score:2)
FYI, that weakens your argument (Score:2)
Just FYI, when you're so pre-occupied with your misunderstanding of patents that you're constantly interrupting unrelated conversations in your zeal to bring up patents all the time, it actually makes you look silly. It *weakens* your argument by having the argument associated with goofy behavior.
Which, come to think of it, is a good thing because it actually is a goofy argument. Carry on.
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Fuck Facebook (Score:2)
Shut down facebook instead (Score:1)
The platform is so hilariously out of touch with everything. It's like those old "Zucc is a robot"-meme images were true after all.
"Hand in cookie-jar" detected (Score:4, Insightful)
Seems Facebook has a lot to hide here. Of course, they do not have a leg to stand on. Users giving their browsing data voluntarily to a research project can do so as long as they see fit.
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Fish gotta eat too you know
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The first rule about Facebook is: (Score:3)
The second rule about Facebook is:
You don't talk about Facebook.
Pot, meet kettle.
You got something to hide, Facebook? I think you do. I also say 'tough shit'.
That's OK (Score:3)
This is just one more interesting data point in my study of self-important assholes' reaction to being studied.
Crowdsource . . . (Score:1)
. . . the data gathering to humans instead of scrapebots.
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facebook is running out of fingers (Score:3, Interesting)
And some of the dutch boys, such as Tim Kendall, are pulling there fingers out and running like hell.
We may never know the true extent of their crimes, and Facebook addicts will never pull the needle out voluntarily. But I suspect that we will learn enough to frighten off most of their advertisers, and that is enough
It's not "user-generated data". (Score:2)