[Air-L] Ethical approval for online data collection?

[Tomas Lin]

Hi everyone,

I am starting a research project that tries to explore the potential
of data collection and online surveys through Facebook Applications.

Given that this is an independent project not founded by my university
and not attached to any faculty member, should I go through the ethics
process of getting approval and ethical review? How would this affect
the validity and publishing potential of this data?

There are already applications on Facebook that claim in their terms
of services "This data could be shared with interested third parties".
And I think my application is no different. What would be the
advantages of getting ethics forms approved for this type of research?
Do journals look down on data that is not obtained through traditional
academic routes?

I am concerned that since ethics review boards do not understand the
nature of this technology, and there are many dimensions of this
exploratory study that simply do not conform to the information being
required in forms from ethics boards. I am also concerned about many
of the potential limitations that will be placed on this research
project from ethics.

Any guidance will be appreciated,

Thank you,

Tomas