Amazon Updated Amazon Mechanical Turk Terms — What’s Changed

electrolyte · Oct 18, 2017

From the blog post here: https://blog.mturk.com/updated-amazon-mechanical-turk-terms-whats-changed-b8190a663f01

"As part of our efforts to improve Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) for Requesters and Workers alike, we took a fresh look at our legal terms. Today we’ve posted updates to our Participation Agreement, Acceptable Use Policy, and Privacy Notice. These updates will help us keep improving MTurk, and hopefully make it easier for you to understand how the marketplace works."

YAHU · Oct 18, 2017

so much for the compound

jan · Oct 18, 2017

We are generally OK with you using scripts and automation tools to help you search and preview Human Intelligence Tasks ("HITs") more efficiently on the MTurk website, as long as those scripts and automation tools (1) do not serve as a substitute for your human judgment to complete work, (2) do not extract and store data from the MTurk website, and (3) do not disrupt or impair the operation of the website or the integrity of the marketplace (e.g., scripts and automation tools that call MTurk continuously and at high frequency aren't OK). As a result, we'll have to make tough calls from time to time when we notice unusual account activity resulting from a particular script or automation tool. Please remember that you are responsible for any script or automation tool that you use with MTurk, and your use of a script or automation tool is at your own risk.

loki3404 · Oct 18, 2017

As a result, we'll have to make tough calls from time to time when we notice unusual account activity

That's as vague as it gets. Don't they already do that?

TSolo315 · Oct 18, 2017

I know

@kryss was joking with her turn off all your scripts post... but my scrapers are going off until we learn more.

Maybe a good time for another turk vacation :bode:

TotalBabe · Oct 18, 2017

A few years ago, I'm pretty sure there was some kind of scare regarding all the tools we use for mTurk. I don't even remember the details of it now. Hopefully, this will turn out to be much ado about nothing.

jan · Oct 18, 2017

There's not much point in turking if I can't panda.
:bear:

K'Lee · Oct 18, 2017

So are they saying we can use things like PC but not scripts that help while doing the hit?

electrolyte · Oct 18, 2017

K'Lee said:
So are they saying we can use things like PC but not scripts that help while doing the hit?

I don't think anyone really knows for sure what they're exactly saying. :confused:

Drwho10 · Oct 18, 2017

I hope they get rid of PREs and throttling now since banning people makes those useless

Pleco · Oct 18, 2017

Drwho10 said:
I hope they get rid of PREs and throttling now since banning people makes those useless

"Due to the excess of unused PRE's we have now due to people not running scripts anymore, we have made improvements at Mturk so each worker gets triple the amount of PRE's they did before"

Drwho10 · Oct 18, 2017

I honestly wouldn't be surprised if the people who write the TOS are members of the legal team of Amazon and didn't even contact the coders to find out if they implemented things like PREs and Throttling so as far as they know its a free for all.

stuffalleysays · Oct 18, 2017

electrolyte said:
From the blog post here: https://blog.mturk.com/updated-amazon-mechanical-turk-terms-whats-changed-b8190a663f01

"As part of our efforts to improve Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) for Requesters and Workers alike, we took a fresh look at our legal terms. Today we’ve posted updates to our Participation Agreement, Acceptable Use Policy, and Privacy Notice. These updates will help us keep improving MTurk, and hopefully make it easier for you to understand how the marketplace works."

Thanks, I take it that hit database is a real no go then.

electrolyte · Oct 18, 2017

stuffalleysays said:
Thanks, I take it that hit database is a real no go then.

I am not a lawyer but the bit that says "do not extract and store data from the MTurk website" makes me think any kind of database script is not going to be okay.

squee · Oct 18, 2017

stuffalleysays said:
Thanks, I take it that hit database is a real no go then.

That's my takeaway and really the thing that bothers me the most.

stuffalleysays · Oct 18, 2017

electrolyte said:
I am not a lawyer but the bit that says "do not extract and store data from the MTurk website" makes me think any kind of database script is not going to be okay.

my thought as well, guess going down to zero script is the real aim. I know it stated scripts to find hits were alright, but those are the scripts that send repeated requests.

stuffalleysays · Oct 18, 2017

squee said:
That's my takeaway and really the thing that bothers me the most.

Right, isn't that the script that tells me what I have completed already? preventing us from doing a hit more than once.

<Gucci> · Oct 18, 2017

We fly blind without Turkopticon.
I would really love to know how you perceive the new TOS
A @Antamania thanks!

electrolyte · Oct 18, 2017

stuffalleysays said:
I know it stated scripts to find hits were alright, but those are the scripts that send repeated requests.

Exactly, which is why this update is so confusing.

Drwho10 · Oct 18, 2017

I believe mturk has reached out to script creators and database creators like turkopticon so hopefully they still have an open line of communication. That was between actual mturk folks though probably not the legal team.

Amazon Updated Amazon Mechanical Turk Terms — What’s Changed

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