[Air-L] public/private

[Ed Lamoureux]

On Aug 11, 2007, at 1:57 PM, Jeremy Hunsinger wrote:

>  don't think they can have a 'reasonable expectation' of privacy,
> and given the history of research on the web and the public coverage
> of that research in the blogosphere, i don't think anyone that is not
> behind a password should have an expectation that they publicly
> available words will not be used in research.  Indeed, I can point to
> probably 100 or so people on the list who have archives of some type
> not only of various blogs, blog communities, or otherwise online
> content.

Ok
So you are studying "abnormal sexual proclivities in everyday  
American life."
You find a REAL juicy blog . . . in which person X writes some pretty  
darned racy stuff for the entire world to see (if they want) ... but  
normally, really, only their friends go there.... (but you are right,  
anyone could).

Down the road, you publish the piece in an online journal. That item  
is SO important to your argument that you publish a nice long quote  
from the data.

Some readers come along, google the string, and get led back to your  
subject and write to them, wondering why they are SO damned abnormal,  
sexually speaking.

Now . . . I would say that the subject has not been protected. I  
would say that without their permission, you've exposed their  
character to personal damage. You've not only used their material  
without permission and used their material as data for a study,  
you've also labeled them as abnormal AND drawn people's attention to  
them as such . . . WITH your university-researcher's authority as an  
expert, without so much as asking them if they understand what you  
are up to or it it's ok to use their material.

Gee... I kinda think that's the sort of thing that human subject  
protection is supposed to stop, isn't it?


Edward Lee Lamoureux, Ph. D.
Associate Professor, Multimedia Program
and Department of Communication
Co-Director, New Media Center
1501 W. Bradley
Bradley University
Peoria IL  61625
309-677-2378
<http://slane.bradley.edu/com/faculty/lamoureux/website2/index.html>
<http://gcc.bradley.edu/mm/>
AIM/IM & skype: dredleelam
Second Life: Professor Beliveau