The internet is an incredible thing. It connects people from all over the world and is an huge source of information. There is no wonder that psychologists have looked to it as a source of data for qualitative studies. However, is it ethical to use data from the internet?
The subject of ethic comes up a great deal in the field of Psychology. One of the main ethical issues within studies is a lack of informed consent. This is the act of failing to obtain written consent from a participant for a study. When taking data from the internet, researchers rarely obtain any form of informed consent before taking the data they require. An example of this is a study conducted by Golder & Macy in 2011, which analysed just under 2.5 million people through their Twitter feeds. The issue here is that anything posted on a social networking site similar to Twitter is counted as public domain, but many people would still take issue with their personal Twitter feeds being used unknowingly for a psychological study. However, on the flip side, people would almost certainly change the way they ‘tweeted’ if they knew that there was someone analysing each and every tweet they submitted.
Data on the internet is not only obtained by lifting information from sites like Twitter. Data is sometimes obtain from sources such as online questionnaires, or even online interviews. A study by Warschauer in 1996 suggested that students (aged from 19-44) were more comfortable and more willing to participate in studies if they were done online, as opposed to in person. This suggests that by using the internet to obtain data researchers can obtain both a larger pool of participants, and a larger representation of a student population within their data.
On the other hand, studies have shown that people behave differently when they are online to when they are going about their day-to-day lives. A study by Vitaly et al (1991) suggested that people can switch authority types when they are online. A large number of participants within the study changed from one end of the authority spectrum to the other when they were on the internet. This could mean that data collected from the internet could be innaccurate, as people will behave very differently when they are anonymous online. As well as people behaving differently, many people in the world still do not have access to the internet. This means that data collected from the internet excludes a large chunk of populations; especially the elderley in countries like England and Wales.
It certainly is possible to collect data that is ethically sound from the internet. Survey websites can be very useful to collect data. These only take a few minutes, and it is much more convenient for people to simply turn on their computer and fill in a survey than for them to go down to a research building and fill it in in person. This convenience will mean that people are more likely to participate. Also, there may be ethical issues with people not filling in surveys honestly, but these issues exist for surveys not conducted on the internet, so there is no disadvantage there.
To conclude, it may not be ethically sound to take data from people without first obtaining informed consent, even if the information is public domain, but when data is obtained from sources such as survey websites then i believe it is fine to do so.
Shut Up I Am Dreaming 
Good blog taking an interesting angle about the ethics of using internet sources. I have to admit, you raised a point that I had not though about; that of the unrepresentative sample the internet provides. You are extremely correct in saying this – there are many people that don’t have access to the internet, and therefore cannot be part of the sample taken from the internet. There is also the issue relating to this that often people use the internet, yet don’t post anything or upload anything, and therefore aren’t included in the sample either.
However, this is all assuming that it is ethical to use internet sources. I quite agree with you that anything on the internet is part of public domain, and therefore can be used. Unless you adapt privacy settings to stop everyone accessing the information, it is public domain, and therefore can be used. But there is the issue with informed consent – using internet sources means that informed consent cannot be given, and therefore according to ethical guidelines, that means the study is unethical. Yet, the chances are that the sample used won’t find out they’re in the study, so does that make it okay? Definitely not!
As far as I can see, there are 2 ways round this. 1) to contact the sources to get informed consent, and not use the sources if contact cannot be made and therefore informed consent cannot be granted, and 2) create a declaration document whereby anyone uploading items to the internet can read and accept. Being completely honest, the amount of people that would read such a document would be next to none, but then there would be no issue of people not accepting the use of the internet as a public domain.
In your conclusion you say that it may not be ethical to use data from the internet without having first obtained informed consent. Previously when I’ve researched this area I found an interesting ‘loop-hole’ in the ethical mine field. It stated that where it is not possible to obtain informed consent then it is sometimes acceptable to gain consent from the governing figure. For example at football match, perhaps you’re observing the crowd, it is not feasible to obtain voluntary consent from each and everyone in the crowd, or observing social rules for driving on the motorway, you can’t flag down each and every car asking if it would be OK to use the data they just took by observing you. It is in situation like these where it is sometimes acceptable to gain permission from the governing body. In the case of internet perhaps it would be acceptable to gain consent from the site manager.
One sore spot brought up when discussing with friends is that what if the website you’re using for data if a forum for those bereaved or are terminally ill and are asking for support, surely this is unethical? Using the data of those asking for help without their direct consent. I guess my take on this would be that the site owner would know the use of their site. My assumption would be if people are using forums such as these, they are more than likely going to be forums specifically set up for people to discuss problems, for example Macmillan cancer support. I would then contend that the owner of such a site would refuse consent. I’m basing this on the hope most humans being are decent and if they’ve created a site for people to discuss private issues then they would reject the use of such a site in any research.
It’s a tricky one, but my opinion is if individuals are confident enough and hold enough conviction in what they’re saying / doing to commit it onto the internet for all to see, then this effectively it them giving consent and therefore a governing body consent is sufficient. However, if forums are based on personal distress then it is the responsibility of the site manager to refuse consent. I guess this is why it says “SOMETIMES the consent of a governing figure is acceptable”, perhaps the use of data from such websites without direct consent from the individuals would be prohibited anyway.
An interesting blog that I agree with. I enjoyed the points you included as there were one’s that I had not considered before however, one area you could have expanded on further is that of the validity of the data retrieved. If researchers were to take qualitative data from such sites as Twitter and Facebook without consent then the validity of the data would be much higher and more respected than those who knew they were being watched and monitored. Although this is ethically unsound researchers are enforced to allow participants to remain anonymous – sometimes even on their own personal records, therefore how would we or anyone else know that such data was taken involuntary? Especially seeing as though many of us don’t pay so much attention to what is published and if it includes something we have “stated” within it. But I do agree with your opinion that this type of data is ethically incorrect and should not be done, and the use of surveys handed out by such institutes as Universities are the best way forward. Although in the sense of SONA in our personal respect, is this still valid? We are told by our peers that we must take part in the studies handed out to gain credits to pass our Research module. From my own view I have seen so many students decide on mock answers or simply complete such surveys as quickly as possible. After all, it is anonymous therefore no-one will know if we are in the wrong and we are still handed the credits.
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As I can see from your blog post, internet research is something of a debatable area in regard to whether it is ethical or not. On the whole I feel that internet research is ethical if conducted the right way. The internet provides vast and ample opportunities to collect data. Also, researchers could potentially reach a wider subject base from all different backgrounds and origins. Internet allows researchers to contact groups of like-minded people, however, not everything posted/said in this domain is for others to observe. Some things on the internet are intensely private and sensitive. But does the fact that there is such a vast amount of social and behavioural information that is easily accessible counteract the privacy? Research collected from this domain, is relatively cheap, in regard to cost and more efficient in response to effort.
As identified by a report commissioned for the US government, internet research allows for data and information to be gathered on the socioeconomic impact of modern information technologies. And so long as internet research just like other forms of research, make the protection of participants and promote innovative and scientifically sound research practices which follow the same five main ethical principles outlined by the Helsinki Convention, this form of data collection can be used. So particular attention should be payed to the benefits/risks of the research, the protection of participants, gaining informed consent and supporting the integrity of participants.
The internet is a fast evolving medium of research and although a good way to gather data and conduct research on, I agree with you that caution needs to be taken when using it to ensure that the same ethical principles are adhered to as with any other form of scientific research.
A great blog and I agree with your opinion that survey websites do not violate ethics, but that taking data from websites such as twitter could be considered as doing so, although I would tend to argue that this stance is a bit pedantic and if someone posts a comment on a public domain then it is available for public use.
The main reason for this opinion is that online surveys often adhere to the ethical code of researchers’, i.e. they provide informed consent, state that the individual has the right to withdraw at any time, and debriefs the participants after. However, an additional comment is that often people get paid to participate in online surveys (e.g. valued opinions) and if one withdraws from the questionnaire early, they are not awarded the money. I personally believe that this is fine, as if this was not the case, people would click onto the questionnaire, not answer it, and still get paid. As a result, companies would be spending far too much money than available for them to offer participants and it would be likely that they would no longer be able to offer cash incentives for participation resulting in virtually no participants.
On the other hand, as you noted, informed consent is not obtained when researchers’ use existing information from users online. Your example of Golder and Macy (2011) illustrates the magnitude of this problem, we could have been involved in this research and have absolutely no idea about it, which I find slightly scary! This does break the code of ethics in terms of informed consent however, the internet is a public domain and as a result, should be available for others to use (as long as it is not illegal). It again demonstrates the fact that one needs to be careful when writing status updates, tweets, etc., if you do not want someone to produce research using it, it is your responsibility not to write it in the first place.
Your point regarding the accessibility to many participants through the use of the internet is also important. The internet provides researchers’ with a large pool of participants and no travelling is needed thus saving time and money. The large pool of participants is important because it means that the findings are likely to be of a higher significance than otherwise, there is less chance of making a Type I or Type II error, and the results are more likely to be able to be generalised to the population as a whole. Furthermore, a useful point that you could have added is the notion that the internet means that a more diverse selection of participants can be selected. In the majoirty of psychological research, it is carried out using psychology undergraduates as participants, resulting in it being harder to generalise these findings to others. However, the internet provides a rich source of very different individuals covering all age spans, thus meaning that the results are more generalisable to the population as a whole.
You raised the point that a drawback of using the internet for research is that people will often adopt different characteristics, attitudes, and online to what they really have, with Vitaly (1991) supporting this notion. However, Hewson, Laurant and Vogel (1996) found that participants were far less likely to express demand characteristics and desirable behaviour when online compared to completing questionnaires in person. This demonstrates the mixed results found in this area, indicating that further research must be conducted to further explore the effects of the internet on a person’s honesty when answering questionnaires.
One idea that could have been included to further add weight to your argument that using the internet for research is the lack of opportunity for debrief. With surveys, where the individual is aware that they are partaking in research, this is not too much of an issue as they can be debriefed afterwards through an online debriefing sheet however, when taking comments from the public domain it does raise ethical concern. Not only is the individual unaware that they are even participating in research due to lack of informed consent, there is no real opportunity for researchers’ to be able to debrief them about what was being investigated, expected findings, their role in the research, etc. This is not ideal and as a result, research like this should be carefully considered by ethics boards and the researcher themselves.
Another point that would have been good to add is the idea of confidentiality. Although researchers’ aim to keep all data confidential and not associate questionnaires with particular participants, there are times where I have participated in an experiment where the researcher has clearly been able to see my answers. I am sure that the researcher would not pass this information on however, this does still mean that the research was never entirely confidential. However, through using the internet for research, data collected cannot be associated with a particular person, thus meaning that the research is far more ethically sound in this respect.
Overall, I agree with the opinion that you presented in this blog that it is generally ethical to use internet sources, but some ethics are broken in the use of comments in the public domain.
I really enjoyed reading your blog and thought it was very well written. It was interesting that you took it from the ethical side as well as bringing in the validity of data collection. Data collection from social communities such as facebook can be used by researchers as well as companies. Data collected could be anything from demographic collection and analysis, (Lewis, K. 2008) to individual data such as comments, statuses and blogs. This is where the fine line is. Most people would be ok with people collecting whether they are male, female however, analyzing and using individual content is where the line is crossed.
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