this post was submitted on 06 Jul 2026
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I mean yeah, to some extent you're right.
But it is also due to telemetrics being helpful in diagnosing issues before users even report them, measuring their business effects, or even doing A/B tests to see how a new feature may affect the user experience.
Problem is that companies realised this info can also be used for other purposes - such as, datamining the users - to create another lucrative revenue source...
A/B testing without consent is unethical. This doesn’t fly in any scientific fields, yet the technology industry doesn’t think twice about experimenting on users without consent.
I think it's a bit of a stretch to consider A/B testing under the same umbrella as subjecting somebody to a scientific study. A/B testing can be selling different products in different stores or trying different pricing strategies. There are certainly shady things you can do with A/B testing, like trying out dark patterns, but require consumers give consent for any kind of market experimentation?
Yeah, it depends on the potential adverse impact. On a web app that does nothing significant, it doesn't matter. If life and limb are at risk, or someone's money, that's different. And if it's a bug fix, you need to consider the consequences of not fixing it too.
There is a research paper on this topic here: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11023-023-09644-y