News and Research articles on The Guardian

Staking out the unclear ethical terrain of online social experiments

Cornelius Puschmann, Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society
Engin Bozdag, Delft University of Technology
PUBLISHED ON: 26 Nov 2014 DOI: 10.14763/2014.4.338

The 'Facebook online social experiment' has caused much controversy. Researchers Cornelius Puschmann and Engin Bozdag review the debate around research ethics and come to the conclusion that "benefits for science should be balanced with possible hazards that may be caused by experiments, rather than precluding that such benefits outweigh the gains".

Hard times for open data

Monika Ermert, Heise, Intellectual Property Watch, VDI-Nachrichten

PUBLISHED ON: 15 Jul 2013

Despite a flurry of commitments, real open data progress seems slow, according to a new census. And then, there are governments excelling in both open and secret data.

PRISM: No surprise to those who wanted to know

Monika Ermert, Heise, Intellectual Property Watch, VDI-Nachrichten

PUBLISHED ON: 13 Jun 2013

We knew the US (and other governments) were watching us, many politicians and engineers said after The Guardian and the Washington Post published information about the spy programme PRISM, which allows US agencies access to all of your whereabouts on the net.