Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What is the nature of the experiment you are running?
A: The University of Klagenfurt and the FAIR research team (part of Meta AI) are collaborating on a wellness research project to understand how helpful self-help messaging experiences (bots) are for people, compared to less interactive forms of self-help. This research is being conducted via a wellness chatbot on WhatsApp.

Q: Why are you running this particular experiment?
A: Previous academic research has shown that wellness information is communicated more effectively when using an interactive format through messages. This project is a pilot study run by a small Meta AI research team in collaboration with the University of Klagenfurt to determine if a simple choose-your-own-adventure format for delivering self-care wellness information works better than a more static format, to communicate science-based wellness tips.

Q: Who is the target audience?
A: Only English-speaking individuals 18 years of age or older living in the United States are eligible to participate. More details about the specifics of the study can be found in the informed consent form for participants.

Q: Does Meta plan to use this bot in production?
A: This bot, which is still a work in progress, is currently used for research only.

Q: Is the FAIR team running other similar experiments to improve wellness on the WhatsApp or Messenger Platform?
A: No, this is the only wellness experiment FAIR is currently running through this platform. We anticipate designing follow-up studies once we get results from this study and can learn from it, but this will depend on what we find with the current controlled study.

Q: What are you planning to do with the information you collect?
A: The goal of the Meta AI research team in partnering with the University of Klagenfurt is to conduct a larger-scale validation of promising results from smaller academic research studies, with a randomized control design comparing delivery of wellness information through messages with delivery of similar information through websites.

The team conducting the research may use engagement and feedback data tied to the bot (such as, numeric or qualitative feedback entered by participants) to help improve the bot.

Q: Will Meta have access to my personal data? What data is saved and for how long? Who will have access to the data? Will data be anonymized?
A: For the purpose of this study, Meta will share summarized engagement data with Klagenfurt University under a randomly assigned participant number. This random number will not be associated with the user’s FB or WhatsApp identity or any other FB data and will be deleted at the end of the study. The team conducting the research may use engagement and feedback data tied to the bot (such as, numeric or qualitative feedback entered by participants) to help improve the bot.

Q: Will Meta allow businesses/developers to access the bot data and use it for ad targeting?
A: No, the data will not be accessible for advertising purposes.

Q: Is this part of the wider set of initiatives and tools launched by Meta to support mental health?
A: No. This is an early-stage academic research study out of FAIR to evaluate some specific aspects of delivery of self-help wellness intervention.

Q: Are you collecting personal information, such as social security numbers, addresses, through the bot?
A: No, the messaging experience (bot) will not collect personally identifiable information (PII) from people who engage with Zenny.

Q: What security measures are you taking to protect people’s sensitive mental health information?
A: We are committed to ensuring that people feel safe and secure on the Facebook platform as well as the family of apps. We have taken great strides to protect people’s data and have a number of security measures in place including: