Harvard Researchers Accused of Breaching Students' Privacy Social-network project shows promise and peril of doing social science online http://chronicle.com/article/Harvards-Privacy-Meltdown/128166/?sid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en By Marc Parry In 2006, Harvard sociologists struck a mother lode of social-science data, offering a new way to answer big questions about how race and cultural tastes affect relationships. The source: some 1,700 Facebook profiles, downloaded from an entire class of students at an "anonymous" university, that could reveal how friendships and interests evolve over time. It was the kind of collection that hundreds of scholars would find interesting. And in 2008, the Harvard team began to realize that potential by publicly releasing part of its archive. But today the data-sharing venture has collapsed. The Facebook archive is more like plutonium than gold—its contents yanked offline, its future release uncertain, its creators scolded by some scholars for downloading the profiles without students' knowledge and for failing to protect their privacy. Those students have been identified as Harvard College's Class of 2009. -- President, Social Explorer, Inc 50 Merriam Ave Bronxville, NY 10708 Phone 1-888-636-1118 Mobile 914-522-4487 FAX 1-888-442-1117 andy@socialexplorer.com www.socialexplorer.com Become a fan on Facebook! http://www.facebook.com/pages/Social-Explorer/110325499019530 Follow us on Twitter @socialexplorer Prof of Sociology Queens College and Grad Ctr CUNY Chair Queens College Sociology Dept Office:  718-997-2848 Email:  andrew.beveridge@qc.cuny.edu 252A Powdermaker Hall 65-30 Kissena Blvd Flushing, NY 11367-1597