cloudresearch.com

Cloud Research Doesn't Respect the Humans Whose Data They Covet

I was invited to the Cloud Research platform years ago after providing excellent work on MTurk. I only do this sort of low-hanging-fruit work because I have major health issues that make traditional employment more difficult for me to handle.During my time with CR, I never received any complaints. There were no rejections. My score, before they did away with it entirely, was perfect.The biggest thing that bothered me about CR before June was that they required participants to refresh their often slow-loading platform page roughly every 12 seconds just to "catch" higher-paying studies. They set up the site so that competition is incredibly fierce. Although they allow a page refresher, which is something other sites often bar, a study with hundreds slots can disappear in a matter of seconds. That said, I had no major issues beyond this problem.Then I was waitlisted in June right after completing a study. CR gave no warning or reason.The event happened a few days after Cloud Research mods approved me as an authorized user on their reddit forum. I thought this was strange at the time. I had been an approved user from the start (i.e., several years).After the waitlisting, I reached out to CR Support about pending approvals/money. I didn't ask for a reason. I knew from reading reddit posts that CR often waitlists without giving a reason. Yet...When I made an inquiry about pending approval, future account access, etc., I was told clearly that I had a great record of following their TOS. On one hand, I was relieved to hear that I wasn't the problem in terms of the TOS. On the other hand, it left me wondering what the hell happened.What is frustrating and, frankly, harmful -- both to the emotions and finances of participants and Cloud Research's reputation -- is that they just dump people like some sort of narcissistic abuser in a discard phase. They pick and choose what they tell users about the reasons. And it's all done without any care about the humans they claim to care about through research.I'll never know why they did it. They treat most people who use the site like numbers/cogs rather than people. I was lucky to receive a little insight likely because I had built a rapport with one of the managers; not that it mattered in the end.Was it demographics? Was it because I didn't complete all of literally hundreds of unpaid About You questions (i.e., provide them with free data)? Was it because I had just bypassed a specific number of returned HITs? Was it something they read on my reddit account that they just didn't like, even though it was the same account from the beginning and they knew my handle and had access to the public posts all along? Was it because I was working fairly steadily and then in June had to work less?Again, I'll never know.I didn't make a lot of money from CR every month, but it was a source of some income for me. The site was a good way to gap fill when I needed a little extra cash. Right before this happened, I had the process of refreshing, answering, etc. down to a system that I foolishly began to plan into my overall earnings rather than as a side extra. So, it was disheartening to one moment believe I could rely on this platform and the next watch it all go away. The reasons I'm giving CR a 1-star rating instead of a 2 or 3 rating and certainly not a 4 or 5 rating are:1. The waitlist process is disrespectful and shows that CR and associated researchers don't actually value human beings beyond the money they can make off cheaply acquired data. I'm not surprised by this overall, it's the nature of academic research, but I believe strongly that if CR isn't going to be respectful than neither should the people they burn.2. CR expects a ton of free data via the About You questions. There has also been plenty of proof here and elsewhere that they're now asking a lot of unpaid screener questions during application processes to gain precious data without paying. 3. CR expects waitlisted users to continue to provide answers for longitudinal studies. They don't email participants about these studies, which means they also expect former users to keep logging back into the site to check for updates... UNPAID.4. I've heard from more than one source that CR waitlists instead of deactivating accounts because they can then say to potential investors that they have X number of active accounts, even when those users will never be given another opportunity to participate on the site. As a result, I now recommend to anyone who becomes waitlisted that they gather all their financial data from the site and then deactivate. This is another example of CR making money off of users without paying them.

Date of experience: Jun 23, 2025