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Facebook Turning Users Into Lab Rats

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by Jeff Bercovici
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Dec 17 2007 12:00am EDT

Facebook Turning Users into Lab Rats?

The last thing Facebook needs right now is for someone to raise fresh concerns about the site's privacy protection. But that's just what The New York Times does today with this article about researchers from Harvard and UCLA who are studying Facebook profiles to learn "how personal tastes, habits and values affect the formation of social relationships."

The research is going on, in some cases, without the knowledge or consent of those whose profiles are under scrutiny. "A spokeswoman for Facebook says the site has no policy prohibiting scholars from studying profiles of users who have not activated certain privacy settings," says the Times.

I'm putting the over/under on how long before someone starts circulating a petition at 48 hours.

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