Researchers Release Profile Data on 70,000 OkCupid Users Without Permission (vox.com)

An anonymous users shares a Vox report: A group of researchers has released a data set on nearly 70,000 users of the online dating site OkCupid. The data dump breaks the cardinal rule of social science research ethics: It took identifiable personal data without permission. The information -- while publicly available to OkCupid users -- was collected by Danish researchers who never contacted OkCupid or its clientele about using it. The data, collected from November 2014 to March 2015, includes user names, ages, gender, religion, and personality traits, as well as answers to the personal questions the site asks to help match potential mates. The users hail from a few dozen countries around the world. The researchers, Emil Kirkegaard, Oliver Nordbjerg, and Julius Daugbjerg ran software to "scrape" the information off OkCupid's website and then uploaded the data onto the Open Science Framework, an online forum where researchers are encouraged to share raw data to increase transparency and collaboration across social science.

Comments

Re: Bullshit

[Anonymous Coward]

You can't be stripped of an academic title. It isn't like having a license to practice law, or medicine.

Re: Read Before Posting

[Anonymous Coward]

Breaking a TOS != Illegal

Re: Bullshit

[gweihir]

You are wrong. The university that gave you that title can remove it under certain circumstances, such as when you have damaged the reputation of the field it is in. I know, for example, of a PhD Lawyer that lost his PhD after being caught robbing a bank. It is not a legal procedure, it is an academic procedure. You may seek legal redress, but that usually fails. The same can happen when it turns out you falsified results.