As the Facebook fiasco unfolds, one image sticks in my mind: that of the Cambridge Psychometrics Centre physically nestled inside the University of Cambridge Judge Business School. It calls itself a “strategic research network”, meaning it does research, but also sells its services to commercial companies. It has come to international attention because its studies informed the development of an app that passed data from Facebook to Cambridge Analytica . The case highlights worryingly blurred boundaries between business and academic research.
Facebook數據洩露醜聞曝出後，一幅畫面縈繞在我的腦海中，我不斷地想到劍橋大學心理測驗中心(Cambridge Psychometrics Centre)。該中心坐落於劍橋大學(University of Cambridge)佳奇商學院(Judge Business School)內，它自稱是一個「戰略研究網路」，這意味著它從事研究工作，但它同時也向商業公司出售服務。該中心已經引起了國際關注，因爲它的研究促成了一個程式(APP)的開發，該APP將數據從Facebook傳輸給劍橋分析(Cambridge Analytica)。此事突顯了商業和學術研究之間令人擔憂的模糊界限。