Facebook Faces Government Probe Over Study That Manipulated Users' Emotions Without Telling Them

Facebook faces a government investigation in Europe over its study of whether manipulating people's news feeds could change their emoti Reportedly recently,Facebook's experiment tweaked the algorithms of nearly 700,000 unwitting users, causing people to see an abnormally low number of either positive or negative posts. People who saw more negative posts wrote more negative posts, and vice versa, showing that their mood was being affected by the kinds of things they were reading on Facebook.

Now, governments in the U.K. and Ireland look set to investigate, according to the Financial Times:

The Information Commissioner's Office said it was probing the experiment and planned to ask Facebook questions after widespread outrage when it was revealed at the weekend. The regulator said it would also be in contact with the Irish data protection body, because Facebook has its European headquarters in Dublin.

A spokesperson for the ICO said it was too early to tell exactly what part of the law Facebook may have infringed. The regulator looks at how much personal data are used and whether users have given their consent.

Facebook won't be helped by the fact that the company didn't alter its terms of service to disclose to users that their posts would be used for research until four months after the experiment took place, according to Forbes:

Four months after this study happened, in May 2012, Facebook made changes to its data use policy, and that's when it introduced this line about how it might use your information: "For internal operations, including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, research and service improvement." Facebook helpfully posted a "red-line" version of the new policy, contrasting it with the prior version from September 2011 - which did not mention anything about user information being used in "research."

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg need not lie awake stressing over the outcome of any probe, however. The ICO only has the power to levy a fine of up to £500,000 ($857,000), the FT says - which is pocket change in terms of the $3 billion that the social network holds on its balance sheet.

36 million daily users of Internet inBritain

Britain now has 36 million adults using the Internet everyday, an increase of 20 million over 2006 when the country started such records, said the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The ONS figures show that 21 million households, 83 percent of the total, had Internet access in Britain, in 2013. 

"The Internet has changed the way people go about their daily lives," said the ONS Thursday. Almost three-quarters of adults in Britain used the Internet everyday in 2013, with six out of every ten adults, or 61 percent, using a mobile phone or portable computer to access the Internet "on the go", reported Xinhua citing the ONS. 

The ONS figures also showed that four million households in Britain, 17 percent, still have no access to the Internet. The ONS said, people aged 25 to 34, 72 percent of the total, were most likely to read or download news online. 

Almost half of 55-64 age group reported that they now have access to news online. "Social networking has been one of the major success stories of the Internet age and its use continues to grow," it said. In 2013, over half, or 53 percent, of all adults participated in social networking, up from 48 percent in 2012. Almost all adults aged 16 to 24, 93 percent, have used social networks, with one in every two adults, 50 percent, aged 45 to 54 years old now reporting that they participate in social networking. 

The ONS warned the importance of the social networks use is not solely confined to the youngest age groups, "There has been significant growth, in the last six years, in adults selling goods or services online." The official data indicated that 72 percent of all adults bought goods or services online in 2013, up from 53 percent in 2008. In 2007, only one in 10 adults, 12 percent, used sites such as eBay or Gumtree to sell goods online. 

While younger age groups have traditionally embraced Internet shopping, 92 percent of those aged 25 to 34, there has been significant growth in the rate of online purchasing by those aged over 65. Over a third of those aged 65 and over bought online, 36 percent, this year, more than double the 2008 estimate of 16 percent, said the ONS. 

Clothes were the most popular online purchase in 2013, bought by 47 percent of all adults with people aged 25-34 most likely to buy these items. Half of all women bought clothes online, compared with 45 percent of men, revealed the ONS figures.