[Air-L] research ethics again - students and FB

Fri Jan 19 21:04:02 PST 2018

Dear Casey, Michael, Alex, Peter, Dan, Christopher, Sohail, Rasha, Liz, 
kalev, yohanan, Ruth, and Daniel (whew!)

First of all, a thousand thanks for all the comments, suggestions of 
resources, etc.  I, at least, have found the thread to be most helpful. 
With world enough and time, I hope to consolidate all of this into 
something of a case study / resource list for inclusion in a resource 
data base on ethics that we hope to build up as part of our work on IRE.

I may also need to apologize for any lack of clarity and/or giving the 
wrong impression.  The case is not a current, "live" one, but part of a 
project I was recently asked to evaluate and, because of confidentiality 
requirements, can say nothing more specific about at this point in time.

Again, all of your comments and contributions have been most helpful. 
One more terrific example of our "from the ground up" / dialogical 
approach to ethics - again, many thanks indeed.

Best,
- charles

On 12/01/18 00:47, Casey Lynn Fiesler wrote:
> re: the terms of service issue, though this is by no means legal advice, I wrote up a legal/ethical analysis based on the also relevant recent LinkedIn case. https://medium.com/@cfiesler/law-ethics-of-scraping-what-hiq-v-linkedin-could-mean-for-researchers-violating-tos-787bd3322540
> 
> The ACM SIGCHI ethics committee (disclaimer: I am on it) also wrote about this issue recently: https://medium.com/sigchi-ethics-committee/do-researchers-need-to-follow-tos-f3bde1950d3c?source=linkShare-941ba1546cc4-1515714179
> 
> My personal take these days is that we should be thinking about potential harms - to both users and the company, and considering reasonable user expectations - probably more than legal problems though.
> 
> Casey
> 
> —
> Casey Fiesler
> Assistant Professor
> Department of Information Science
> University of Colorado Boulder
> 
> On Jan 11, 2018, at 9:48 AM, Michael T Zimmer <zimmerm at uwm.edu<mailto:zimmerm at uwm.edu>> wrote:
> 
> Further, the U.S. 9th Circuit just ruled that violating a website’s terms of service is not, in and of itself, a crime.
> https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2018/01/ninth-circuit-doubles-down-violating-websites-terms-service-not-crime
> 
> 
> 
> --
> Michael Zimmer, PhD
> Associate Professor, School of Information Studies
> Director, Center for Information Policy Research
> University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
> e: zimmerm at uwm.edu<mailto:zimmerm at uwm.edu><mailto:zimmerm at uwm.edu>
> w: http://secure-web.cisco.com/1YfJi_8C0EP86lue7f3TStYfEgePMINPqhp22u2M-fc5hMQNFjczP6vM00jLRKeA5wWccPwh6b5RAmQYypotRYNtlyhUZI4CpmlJVjnSeYCa1offGLgsWdU6akWwCe-KQsAV6bmHtZ81ux0bKh2QTWv2EoyBglH3SN0AghS1oYeXw_ByIrlUh3w5nbpvWKYgvHOquC3q5j468VZU0VksVov6m6TBnsHqUfZgFiNdNzI0fu2nIGgSNP6rtvfkCxP5qVPieKoQS-K-ZrKvAOX5YUnYaIYr5ji33v0qOplUdqDNDgT-8HzoXiZGRu-ha5_kLWHMk6x8yf55vFQ0xMCYJWopiFJqaThywaX4irE-FhQVsLBEwxy1rj2CcuhWdl_fuhUIw3nme3rOnoizWKhGj_0yoEP4SmnFjy1lvha-5N_iFsn8ybyeBCE8le0SIGlVo/http%3A%2F%2Fwww.michaelzimmer.org<http://secure-web.cisco.com/1YfJi_8C0EP86lue7f3TStYfEgePMINPqhp22u2M-fc5hMQNFjczP6vM00jLRKeA5wWccPwh6b5RAmQYypotRYNtlyhUZI4CpmlJVjnSeYCa1offGLgsWdU6akWwCe-KQsAV6bmHtZ81ux0bKh2QTWv2EoyBglH3SN0AghS1oYeXw_ByIrlUh3w5nbpvWKYgvHOquC3q5j468VZU0VksVov6m6TBnsHqUfZgFiNdNzI0fu2nIGgSNP6rtvfkCxP5qVPieKoQS-K-ZrKvAOX5YUnYaIYr5ji33v0qOplUdqDNDgT-8HzoXiZGRu-ha5_kLWHMk6x8yf55vFQ0xMCYJWopiFJqaThywaX4irE-FhQVsLBEwxy1rj2CcuhWdl_fuhUIw3nme3rOnoizWKhGj_0yoEP4SmnFjy1lvha-5N_iFsn8ybyeBCE8le0SIGlVo/http%3A%2F%2Fwww.michaelzimmer.org>
> 
> On Jan 10, 2018, at 3:37 PM, Dan L. Burk <dburk at uci.edu<mailto:dburk at uci.edu><mailto:dburk at uci.edu>> wrote:
> 
> So, although I am not saying that the study design is ethical, or even
> necessarily a good idea, I would most definitely take issue with either
> the specific assertion that violating an adhesion contract is always
> unethical (it is called an adhesion contract for good reason), and with
> the more general assertion that violations of law are always unethical.
> 
> Also, non-trivially, the assertion is a non-sequitur: minors generally
> can't enter into binding contracts, so there is by definition no
> contract for them to violate.
> 
> None of that means you should go ahead and do it; only that if you
> decline to do so, it should be for some other reasons.
> 
> Cheers, DLB
> 
> Dan L. Burk
> Chancellor's Professor of Law
> University of California, Irvine
> ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> 2017-18 Fulbright Cybersecurity Scholar
> 
> On 2018-01-10 09:28, Christopher J. Richter wrote:
> 
> Dear Charles,
> 
> TOS agreements are most often legally binding. Requiring minors (indeed any study participant, but especially minors) to violate a legal contract, whether online or off, is unethical on the face of it.
> 
> Then there is the issue of deception, of whom and how interactions on the fake accounts are deceiving.  Deception, by definition, undermines informed consent. Will those who are deceived be debriefed? If not, it's problematic.
> 
> Christopher J. Richter, Ph.D.
> Associate Professor, Communication Studies
> Hollins University
> Roanoke VA, USA
> 
> On Jan 10, 2018, at 4:44 PM, Charles M. Ess <c.m.ess at media.uio.no<mailto:c.m.ess at media.uio.no><mailto:c.m.ess at media.uio.no>> wrote:
> 
> Dear AoIRists,
> 
> What are your thoughts regarding the following?
> 
> A research project involves a small number of students, legally minors - and requires that they set up fake FB accounts for the sake of role-playing in an educational context?
> Of course, fake accounts are a clear violation of the FB ToS.
> 
> I know we've discussed the ethics of researchers doing this (with mixed results, i.e., some for, some concerned).
> 
> But I'm curious what folk think / feel about this version of the problem.
> 
> Many thanks in advance,
> - charles
> --
> Professor in Media Studies
> Department of Media and Communication
> University of Oslo
> <http://www.hf.uio.no/imk/english/people/aca/charlees/index.html>
> 
> Postboks 1093
> Blindern 0317
> Oslo, Norway
> c.m.ess at media.uio.no<mailto:c.m.ess at media.uio.no><mailto:c.m.ess at media.uio.no>
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-- 
Professor in Media Studies
Department of Media and Communication
University of Oslo
<http://www.hf.uio.no/imk/english/people/aca/charlees/index.html>

Postboks 1093
Blindern 0317
Oslo, Norway
c.m.ess at media.uio.no