 The Facebook emotional contagion experiment, discussed above, is just one example in a larger trend of big data research conducted outside of traditional university-based research ethics oversight mechanisms. Nearly all online companies and platforms analyze data and test theories that often rely on data from individual users. Industry-based data research, once limited to marketing-oriented “A/B testing” of benign changes in interface designs or corporate communication messages, now encompasses information about how users behave online, what they click and read, how they move, eat, and sleep, the content they consume online, and even how they move about their homes. Such research produces inferences about individuals’ tastes and preferences, social relations, communications, movements, and work habits. It implies pervasive testing of products and services that are an integral part of intimate daily life, ranging from connected home products to social networks to smart cars. Except in cases where they are partnering with academic institutions, companies typically do not put internal research activities through a formal ethical review process, since results are typically never shared publicly and the perceived impact on users is minimal.