[Air-L] a question about privacy protection and copyright in Internet research

[Michael Zimmer]

Like Alex, I now have a better understanding the how/why you're trying to make this strong distinction between "documents" and "human subjects". But my broader concern is that some of the statements made seem to indicate that even if we decide a particular item under study is not a "human subject", then we don't need to consider any possible impact on the human connected to that document. 

To me, research ethics reaches beyond strict "human subject" distinctions or whether a project is strictly under the purview of an IRB.

Things brings me back to my earlier concern with Jeremy's apparent assertion that once something is published, it is no longer private, and thus we needn't worry ourselves with privacy/ethical concerns.  And I'm reading his meaning to include cases where that publication is without the explicit knowledge or consent of the subject.  Please correct me if I'm mistaken here, Jeremy, because it then begs the question about how the publication of illegally obtained data would fit into your framework.  If Anonymous publishes personal data from the Sony PlayStation database breech, can we researchers use that data without concern over subject privacy?  Are you suggesting that users took the risk that Sony might have flawed security, and users automatically lost any interest in the data once they submitted it to the 3rd party?

-mz


On May 10, 2011, at 12:23 PM, jeremy hunsinger wrote:

> I tend to put reflexivity in the category of judgment.  and no i am not saying this is going to be 'unethical' or that we shouldn't use ethics, what i am saying is that, we should resist the temptation to make public documents into questions of human subjects.   But we just need to be as clear as we can in this area as to what the ethical considerations are.  
> 
> In regards to the twitter example and most 'harm' arguments I find it fruitful to discuss... where the harm began and who is perpetrating it in respect to what.   I have a private twitter account and people have used it for research, in what sense is my twitter private, in what sense could i be harmed any more than I actually have consented to by using twitter?  
> 
> 
> On May 10, 2011, at 12:37 PM, Alex Halavais wrote:
> 
>> I'm glad for the clarification, because now I know I disagree :).
>> 
>> The cases where the published documents ("texts") actually are
>> relevant to human subjects seem to be the area that is most
>> interesting to me. And I suspect that there is not a single published
>> document that does not require the researcher to be ethically
>> reflexive in that regard.
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> jeremy hunsinger
> Center for Digital Discourse and Culture
> Virginia Tech
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