OkCupid Study Reveals the Perils of Big-Data Science
https://www.wired.com/2016/05/okcupid-study-reveals-perils-big-data-science/
On May 8, a group of Danish researchers publicly released a
dataset of nearly 70,000 users of the online dating site
OkCupid, including usernames, age, gender, location, what kind
of relationship (or sex) they're interested in, personality
traits, and answers to thousands of profiling questions used
by the site. When asked whether the researchers attempted to
anonymize the dataset, Aarhus University graduate student Emil
O. W. Kirkegaard, who was lead on the work, replied bluntly:
"No. Data is already public." This sentiment is repeated in
the accompanying draft paper
- - -
It's arrogant jerks like the asses behind this data scraping
"study" -- completely lacking any sense of ethics or responsibility --
who give technologists everywhere a bad name and enormously set back the
important work of genuine data science and responsible scientists.
Small wonder that politicians hate us and ordinary people don't trust us.
Incredibly depressing.
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein ([email protected]): http://www.vortex.com/lauren
Founder:
- Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org
- PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com/privacy-info
Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org/pfir-info
Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
Google+: http://google.com/+LaurenWeinstein
Twitter: http://twitter.com/laurenweinstein
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com
I have consulted to Google, but I am not currently
doing so -- my opinions expressed here are mine alone.
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