[Air-L] a new wrinkle in internet research ethics
Charles M. Ess
charles.ess at media.uio.no
Tue Apr 27 09:56:21 PDT 2021
... don't mess with code!
<https://thehackernews.com/2021/04/minnesota-university-apologizes-for.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheHackersNews+%28The+Hackers+News+-+Cyber+Security+Blog%29&_m=3n.009a.2470.ka0ao0d8cz.1kao>
What is particularly interesting is that the IRB "had reviewed the study
and determined that it was not human research, only to backtrack, adding
'throughout the study, we honestly did not think this is human research,
so we did not apply for an IRB approval in the beginning. We apologize
for the raised concerns.'"
And:
"Our community does not appreciate being experimented on, and being
'tested' by submitting known patches that are (sic) either do nothing on
purpose or introduce bugs on purpose," Linux kernel maintainer Greg
Kroah-Hartman said in one of the exchanges last week.
Or, to quote a computer scientist engaged in exploring vulnerabilities
in network engineering via Big Data approaches, thinking that no IRB
review or approval was needed - "it's only data" - only to discover that
there were direct, sometimes very negative consequences for human beings
as a result: "Oh sh*t, it's people".
Happy ethical reflexivity, folkens.
best,
- charles ess
--
Professor Emeritus
University of Oslo
<http://www.hf.uio.no/imk/english/people/aca/charlees/index.html>
Secretary, IFIP Working Group 9.8, Gender, Diversity, and ICT
<http://ifiptc9.org/9-8/>
Fellow, Siebold-Collegiums Institute for Advanced Studies,
Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg, Germany
3rd edition of Digital Media Ethics now out:
<http://politybooks.com/bookdetail/?isbn=9781509533428>
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