| Recurring |
one_organization, multiple_organization |
<Article 28626> provides information about a software failure incident related to psychological experiments conducted by OkCupid on its users without their knowledge or explicit consent. This incident involved manipulating users' profiles, removing photos, and adjusting match percentages to see the impact on user behavior and interactions. The article also mentions that Facebook had faced similar criticism for conducting experiments on its users' news feeds. This incident falls under the category of a software failure related to unethical experimentation on users' data and privacy.
Regarding the options provided:
(a) one_organization: OkCupid has been involved in conducting psychological experiments on its users, which can be considered a software failure incident within the organization itself.
(b) multiple_organization: The article mentions that Facebook had also conducted similar experiments on its users' news feeds, indicating that such incidents have occurred at other organizations as well. |
| Phase (Design/Operation) |
design, operation |
(a) The software failure incident related to the design phase can be seen in the case of OkCupid's intentional manipulation of user profiles and matches for psychological experiments. The company admitted to removing users' photos, adjusting match percentages, and providing misleading information to users without their knowledge or explicit consent. These actions were part of experiments conducted by OkCupid to study user behavior and preferences [28626].
(b) The software failure incident related to the operation phase can be observed in how OkCupid's users were affected by the manipulated profiles and matches. Users were deceived into believing they were highly compatible with others who were actually terrible matches. This led to users sending more messages and engaging in conversations based on false information provided by the system. The operation of the system, in this case, led to users acting on inaccurate data presented to them by OkCupid [28626]. |
| Boundary (Internal/External) |
within_system |
(a) within_system: The software failure incident reported in the articles is primarily within the system. OkCupid admitted to conducting psychological experiments on its users without their knowledge or explicit consent. The company removed text from users' profiles, hid people's photos, and manipulated match percentages to see how it would affect user behavior and interactions on the platform. These experiments were conducted internally by OkCupid to study user behavior and preferences [28626].
(b) outside_system: There is no indication in the articles that the software failure incident was caused by contributing factors originating from outside the system. The failure, in this case, was a result of deliberate actions taken by OkCupid within its platform for experimental purposes. |
| Nature (Human/Non-human) |
non-human_actions, human_actions |
(a) The software failure incident related to non-human actions in this case involves OkCupid conducting psychological experiments on its users without their knowledge or explicit consent. The company removed text from users' profiles, hid people's photos, and manipulated match percentages to see how it would impact user behavior [28626]. These actions were taken by the software system itself as part of the experiments designed by the company.
(b) The software failure incident related to human actions in this case involves the co-founder of OkCupid, Christian Rudder, admitting that the firm had been performing psychological experiments on users without their knowledge or explicit consent. Rudder acknowledged that users were subjected to experiments where their profiles were altered, photos were hidden, and false match information was provided, all orchestrated by the company [28626]. These actions were initiated and carried out by human decision-makers within the organization. |
| Dimension (Hardware/Software) |
software |
(a) The articles do not mention any software failure incident occurring due to contributing factors originating in hardware. Hence, there is no information available regarding a software failure incident related to hardware in the provided articles.
(b) The software failure incident mentioned in the articles is related to software itself. OkCupid admitted to conducting psychological experiments on its users without their knowledge or explicit consent. The company manipulated users' profiles, removed photos, adjusted match percentages, and provided misleading information about compatibility to observe user behavior. This incident highlights a failure in the ethical use of software and the potential negative impact of such manipulative experiments on users [28626]. |
| Objective (Malicious/Non-malicious) |
non-malicious |
(a) The objective of the software failure incident was non-malicious. OkCupid admitted to performing psychological experiments on users without their knowledge or explicit consent. They manipulated users' profiles, removed photos, adjusted match percentages, and even told some users they were exceptionally good matches when they were actually terrible matches. These experiments were conducted to study user behavior and the impact of different profile elements on interactions, rather than with the intent to harm the system or users [28626].
(b) The software failure incident was not malicious but rather aimed at understanding user behavior and the effectiveness of different profile elements in influencing interactions on the platform. |
| Intent (Poor/Accidental Decisions) |
poor_decisions |
(a) The intent of the software failure incident was related to poor_decisions. OkCupid intentionally conducted psychological experiments on its users without their knowledge or explicit consent. The company removed text from users' profiles, hid people's photos, and even manipulated match percentages to see how it would affect user behavior [28626]. These actions were deliberate decisions made by the company to conduct experiments on users, indicating poor decision-making in terms of user privacy and ethical considerations. |
| Capability (Incompetence/Accidental) |
development_incompetence |
(a) The software failure incident related to development incompetence is evident in the case of OkCupid's psychological experiments on users. The company admitted to manipulating users' profiles, removing photos, and providing misleading match percentages without users' knowledge or explicit consent [28626]. This behavior reflects a lack of professional competence in handling user data and conducting ethical experiments, leading to a software failure incident.
(b) The software failure incident related to accidental factors is seen in the case of OkCupid's experiments where users were deceived into believing they were highly compatible with terrible matches. This deception led users to send more messages and engage with matches they would not have otherwise, showcasing the accidental impact of the experiments on user behavior [28626]. |
| Duration |
temporary |
The software failure incident described in the articles is more aligned with a temporary failure rather than a permanent one. This is evident from the fact that OkCupid intentionally conducted psychological experiments on its users by manipulating their profiles, hiding photos, and adjusting match percentages to observe the impact on user behavior and interactions [28626]. These experiments were conducted for a specific duration to gather data and insights, indicating that the failure was temporary and not a permanent issue with the software system. |
| Behaviour |
omission, value, other |
(a) crash: The software failure incident described in the articles does not involve a crash where the system loses state and stops performing its intended functions.
(b) omission: The software failure incident involves omission where the system omits to perform its intended functions at instances. OkCupid omitted to show users' photos, removed text from profiles, and manipulated match percentages without users' knowledge or consent [28626].
(c) timing: The software failure incident does not involve timing issues where the system performs its intended functions too late or too early.
(d) value: The software failure incident involves a failure related to the system performing its intended functions incorrectly. OkCupid manipulated match percentages and told users they were good matches when they were actually terrible matches [28626].
(e) byzantine: The software failure incident does not exhibit byzantine behavior where the system behaves erroneously with inconsistent responses and interactions.
(f) other: The other behavior exhibited in this software failure incident is conducting psychological experiments on users without their explicit consent or knowledge, manipulating user data, and intentionally providing false information to users [28626]. |