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Informed or uninformed consent?

The increasing use of social networks as a source of data in marketing research has raised questions as to the extent to which researchers have consent from individuals to use data. A 2013 paper by Nunan and Yenicoglu in the International Journal of Market Research18 argues that many social networks actively seek a form of uninformed consent when users of these services agree to privacy policies. Such privacy policies appear commercially fair, but they also encourage a culture of information sharing. In this case the penalty is a reduction of value derived from the social graph and less utility from the site overall. The label ‘uninformed consent’ is used because while these policies provide a form of legal protection for the service, they do not inform the user of the service of the full range of potential uses. Read the consent policies for the social networks highlighted in the table below and judge for yourself whether you think these could be classified as ‘informed consent’: