[Air-l] internet research and confidentiality

Thomas Koenig T.Koenig at lboro.ac.uk
Tue Dec 21 14:03:42 PST 2004


At 18:40 21/12/2004, Mark D. Johns wrote:
>At 11:48 AM 12/21/2004, Thomas Koenig wrote:
>>Blogging, Webpublishing and Usenet posting are demonstrably public 
>>activities. Unless you render the concept of "private" so ambigious that 
>>it becomes virtually unusable, this is an empirical fact, not a normative 
>>statement.
>>
>>Therefore, publishing research on these kinds of communications does not 
>>violate any privacy/confidentialty laws. At least that is the case for 
>>most countries that guarantee some freedom of speech rights.
>>
>>While I have no idea about the bylaws of specific universities or 
>>professional associations, I would strongly caution against regulations 
>>that curtail the rights of academics vis-a-vis non-affiliated citizens or 
>>even journalists.
>>
>>Of course, some exceptions with respect to vulnerable persons apply, but 
>>by and large vulnerable persons do not do blogging.
>>
>>BTW, you are not doing (experimental) research on human subjects, but on 
>>communications.
>>
>>Thomas
>
>That is your view, it is a common one, and you are entitled to it.


Some of it is my view, but some of it are empirically testable factual 
statements.

>If you read the guidelines you would understand that they are simply that, 
>not regulations.

I did read the guidelines and I am very aware that these are guidelines, 
but these are also guidelines I personally happen to disagree with in some 
respects. And even if "guidelines" are not legally binding, they still 
steer you into one direction or the other.

There are other guidelines of other professional associations, too. When I 
read the guidelines of those associations, where I pay membership fees, I 
disagree much less, in fact, I agree. The American Sociological Association 
states, for instance:

"(c) Sociologists may conduct research in public places or use publicly 
available information about individuals (e.g., naturalistic observations in 
public places, analysis of public records, or archival research) without 
obtaining consent. If, under such circumstances, sociologists have any 
doubt whatsoever about the need for informed consent, they consult with 
institutional review boards or, in the absence of such boards, with another 
authoritative body with expertise on the ethics of research before 
proceeding with such research.
(d) In undertaking research with vulnerable populations (e.g., youth, 
recent immigrant populations, the mentally ill), sociologists take special 
care to ensure that the voluntary nature of the research is understood and 
that consent is not coerced. In all other respects, sociologists adhere to 
the principles set forth in 12.01(a)-(c)." 
(http://www.asanet.org/members/ecostand2.html)

Now, this is pretty much what I have said (put more eloquently, to be 
sure), even though I did not even know about the wording of these 
guidelines until half hour ago(talk about disciplinary bias).

>But, like it or not, some regulations, created not by AoIR but by various 
>governments and institutions, do apply.

Yes, and I am still to see that national laws of democratic states that 
would prohibit the quotation of blogs. If they would, pretty much all 
blogging itself would be illegal, because most blogs quote each other on a 
constant basis. My guess is, that at least in the US and Germany, a law 
that would prohibit free speech in such a manner would be ruled 
unconsitutional by the supreme courts.


>  What is legal in one jurisdiction is not always legal in another.

Sure.

>What is legal is not always ethical.

Agreed.

>And what is legal and ethical is not always approved by an IRB.

Unfortunately also true.

>I'm simply pointing out -- as is AoIR in adopting the guidelines -- that 
>this is not a simple, "one size fits all" issue.

I do not think that I advocate a "one size fits all" approach. But I do 
want to have a law that allows in principle for quotation of blogs and the 
like, and then specifies some narrow exemptions to that rule. Just like the 
ASA guidelines do.

Thomas




-- 
thomas koenig, ph.d.
department of social sciences, loughborough university
http://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/mmethods/staff/thomas/index.html 




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