[webmaven]

> Not trying to turn this thread into a generic flameware against "academic" research methods, but this whole things seems oddly reminiscent of the "let's try to insert malicious code into Linux" fiasco [1]. I'm conceptually fine with generic passive tools like web crawlers to conduct research, but since when did the internet become a place where nonconsensual interactive research became fine?

In a very real sense, every landing page A/B test is nonconsensual interactive research.

Or at least, if there is line between them, however blurry, I can't find it.

I am skeptical of the idea that such a line should be drawn according to who is doing the experimentation, I don't think that a manipulative act becomes okay just because it is being done by an academic for research purposes, nor do I think that it becomes okay just because it is being done by a layman with a profit motive (or a political one, for that matter).

[rtpg]

> In a very real sense, every landing page A/B test is nonconsensual interactive research.

I think that lots of benign testing is only this a bit pedantically, at least for the general "two variants of a page" type of thing, context matters of course.

"I want to use this service" -> "OK, here is the page for that service" is a certain interaction where, granted, you might be presented with a different kind of look, but... well, you are getting what you asked for I suppose. Though you could get into the ethics of price differentiation by geo-data, and other general things that lead you to feeling ripped off.

OK, maybe lots of "growth-hacking" A/B test stuff does fall into this category...

I think the primary component of both this CCPA thing and the Linux kernel is, esentially, dishonesty. Researchers are doing things to outright lie to others. Here they are using fake identities! And it probably fails the general smell test of "if the counterparty was informed of the details, would they feel bad about the whole interaction". I said it elsewhere, I don't know if it's really fraud legally but it sure feels like it.

[emn13]

To play devils advocate - is that really all that different from much other online communication? A significant chunk of the web runs on advertisements; and those are in essence tons of little influence games, often with little regard for the truth or honesty: the aim is to manipulate by whatever means you can get away with.

A lot of forums have issues with spam and sock puppets, and not all of that is obvious nor all of it honest.

Even many large, curated news sites have now succumbed to the benefits of deceiving their audience; whether through outright misrepresentation, or merely selective ommission, or merely editorial emphasis that prioritizes their agenda over their readers' understanding of the material.

Attempts to course correct here run into vast vested interests (when it comes to e.g. advertising or biases media), and also against the implementation of free speech protections in the US (and many other places), and more subtly, against public opinion on free speech, which refuses to countenance any attempts at reform.

In essence, we prioritize the right to deceive over the right not to be deceived - in all but the most extreme of circumstances.

Chalk one up for team deception - while this surely isn't a good trend, I can't see how this research is even close to some of the more problematic stuff floating around.

[phone[phone]]

> In a very real sense, every landing page A/B test is nonconsensual interactive research.

I think the difference here is that the user requests a page with a web browser (which could be argued as giving consent to view the contents) while the person that received this email didn't request the experimental email (and therefore didn't consent to the experiment).

[XCSme]

If you consider A/B test nonconsensual research, then you can also consider localized versions of the sites as A/B tests. Or even serving differnet content for mobile and desktop.