Facebook attracted a lot of attention recently over the use of its now-defunct Research app. The app obtained personal and sensitive data on circa 187,000 users, which included 4,300 teenagers.
A lot of the headlines read something along the lines of: “Facebook pays teens to install software that spies on them.” If you haven’t seen this, you can read TechCrunch’s exposé of Facebook’s dubious app here.
Following this exposé, and after global outcry, the Research and Onavo apps (the ones used to spy on the teens and the over 180,000 others) were shutdown.
On Tuesday however, Facebook re-launched a ‘more transparent’, re-vamped version of the apps, called “Study from Facebook” which is currently available only on Android. This begs the question – is it not available on Apple because the previous Research and Onavo apps violated Apple’s enterprise certificate?
The new Study from Facebook will be for 18+ only, and participants from the US and India will be recruited by ads both on and off Facebook, and will have to be approved before joining. And Facebook has stated that only participants who meet these criteria, AND who have a valid PayPal account, will receive payment for their participation.
But despite announcing that transparency is key to this new approach to its market research, it has refused to state how much participants will be paid for their data.
This raises several important questions…Does a “payment” absolve from respecting data ethics? Does the “buyer” – in this case Facebook – get free rein of the data to do anything they like with the purchased data? Is the “value” of the payment given equivalent to the “value” of the benefit generated?
How much would it cost for YOU to sell your data and allow for the casual disregard of the ethical use of data? Where do we draw the line? Just because you pay me does not mean you can bypass or violate basic ethical requirements of data collection and use.
In times like these, this is why ESOMAR knows our #BeDataSmart campaign makes sense; it is these data collection practices that bring sectors into disrepute. Even if, through this attempt to restore credibility and trust, it is legally permissible to collect the data that they describe they will in the way they will, there is a higher ethical requirement around transparency, purpose limitation, and respect.
This basic ethical requirement, which #BeDataSmart champions and speaks to, has clearly proven to improve and reinforce both consumer and user trust. Has this escaped the attention of Facebook, or are they ignoring it? What kind of precedent or eco-system does this kind of paid-for data access set?
#BeDataSmart is very clear in what these requirements are – and receiving payment shouldn’t mean these no longer apply. Does Facebook paying me $50 or $2000 mean that they don’t have to secure my data? Or that they don’t have to limit its use?
And most importantly, how can I check that this conforms to the requirements of CCPA? Or to the requirements of the GDPR?
If you have any questions about any of the legal aspects, feel free to contact the ESOMAR team at professional.standards@esomar.org
What are your thoughts about Study from Facebook? Let us know in the comments!
