Remember how the whole Internet was outraged over Facebook’s social experiments earlier this year? Well, now the social network hasannounced that it’s changing the way its experiments will be run in the future.
From now on, there will be more stringent guidelines in place. If a study peers into a specific demographic or relates to “deeply personal” qualities, such as the feelings or moods considered in the research that kicked off the summer’s outrage, it will have to go through an “advanced review process.” That process will see engineering, research, legal and privacy-and-policy teams all scrutinize the project to make sure it’s good to go. Perhaps most interestingly, though, is a newportal that allows Facebook users to see what projects Zuckerberg & Co. are working on in some detail. Clearly, there’s little desire to make the same mistake twice. [Facebook via Engadget]
