[TN1ck]

Maybe she is in a holdback experiment. To understand how a feature affects the metrics (such as running ads), they often have some people in a holdback. I worked there and we did have such experiments for our features.

[HeatrayEnjoyer]

Isn't that pretty unethical without an IRB and informed consent?

[recursive]

How does ethics even come into this? They didn't require consent to show ads in the first place. Why require consent to not show ads?

[RockRobotRock]

this comment is hilarious no matter how you look at it

[ta1243]

The is the advertising industry, unethical is their middle name

[immibis]

That's academic ethics. Academia holds itself to a high standard - voluntarily. Used car salesmen do not.

[MBCook]

I mean, it’s Google.