What are the implications for social science when the data collected by websites -- where Americans are spending so much of their time -- cannot be studied or peer-reviewed?

“If this trend continues, we’ll see a small group of scientists with access to private data repositories enjoy an unfair amount of attention in the community at the expense of equally talented researchers whose only flaw is the lack of right ‘connections’ to private data.”

Example: This study of online echo chambers could only have been written by someone who had access to Facebook data from the inside.