Facebook announced today that it will provide access to private data for users of its social network for a group of independent researchers who will study the impact of social networks on electoral processes.
Through a statement, Mark Zuckerberg said researchers would be able to access a "portion" of data from billions of active users of the social network. The organizations that fund the project, and the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) was responsible for selecting researchers from 30 academic institutions in 11 countries around the world.
In total, there are 60 academics who will search without any participation from Facebook in the direction of results. After the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Facebook announced in April last year this program to promote the search for the role of social networks in democratic processes.
Last year, the company managed to develop a data exchange infrastructure that provides relevant information to researchers while maintaining users' privacy. For this reason, Facebook has completely deleted the identity of the data and enabled a platform where researchers can only access a private network.
Similarly, Facebook has discovered that it has tested unique privacy methods to ensure anonymity, without adversely affecting the statistical results of the investigation. In addition, the company states that its methods will limit the number of times a researcher can refer to the data, thereby preventing it from violating the privacy of users.
In June, researchers will have to attend a training session on Facebook on search tools and URL data to access confidential information.
0 Comments