A lot of people have been curious about the experiment that was recently conducted by Facebook alongside a couple of university research teams. Top VPN ExpressVPN explains what it was about and why we should be concerned.

The Experiment

Facebook teamed up with researchers from Cornell and the University of California San Francisco to conduct a mood experiment. The experiment involved manipulating Facebook users’ news feeds to see if their moods changed. They controlled whether these users god positive or negative posts in their feeds. The experiment lasted for two weeks in January 2012. The researchers said they were successful in manipulating people’s emotions. They detailed how much they could control people’s emotions by how much they controlled the feeds.

This type of research is not new and not considered illegal. Other companies like Google have also conducted similar online research for the purpose of marketing. Stores have done this for decades to increase profits. Furthermore, the researchers claim that the experiment was covered by the data use policy of Facebook.

The Concern

The real concern with this Facebook experiment is not legality but privacy. We can kick and scream about privacy violations, but Facebook does have this type of research covered by their policies. Users who don’t like their data being used in this way can only choose to quit Facebook or create a more anonymous account. The latter is a fair alternative to leaving Facebook altogether. Using a tool like ExpressVPN, Facebook users can anonymously sign up for a new Facebook account. Just use a new and anonymous email address, an alternate identity, and always log on to ExpressVPN before you use Facebook. Don’t identify yourself in your posts, and inform your friends and family on Facebook that you wish to remain anonymous. You can also add some people who are not really your friends so that someone trying to figure out who you are cannot identify you through your real friends and family.