Facebook disables accounts tied to NYU research
PremiumNYU’s Ad Observatory project studied political ads using unauthorized means to access and collect data from Facebook, in violation of our Terms of Service, says Facebook
Facebook Inc. on Wednesday banned accounts linked to a group of researchers working with a New York University (NYU) project that analyzes political ads on its platform.
The NYU Ad Observatory project was launched last September and comprised more than 6,500 volunteers who used a browser extension designed to collect data about political ads on the platform.
“NYU’s Ad Observatory project studied political ads using unauthorized means to access and collect data from Facebook, in violation of our Terms of Service. We took these actions to stop unauthorized scraping and protect people’s privacy in line with our privacy programme under the FTC Order," Michael Clarke, product management director at Facebook, said in a blog post. Facebook had also sought to block the project in October .
The NYU Ad Observatory is part of the Centre for Cybersecurity at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering. “We use traditional cybersecurity methods to evaluate vulnerabilities of online platforms that are used to spread misinformation. Our focus is on systems, revealing the ways that online sites leave themselves open to misinformation attacks. We then develop mitigation strategies to improve online security, working with advocates, policy makers, and platforms," the group claimed on its website.
According to Clarke’s post, the browser extension that the researchers designed was programmed to evade its detection systems and collect data like usernames, ads, links to user profiles and information Facebook provides through the ‘Why am I seeing this ad?’ button on its platform.
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