Internet Research Ethics NZ Internet Research Forum 4 February 2016 Dr Philippa Smith Dr Erika Pearson Institute of Culture, Discourse & CommunicationJournalism, PR & Marketing Auckland University of TechnologyMassey University Auckland Wellington

Ethics = Morality Branch of Philosophy The right or wrong of any action – behaviour, concepts & language Norms for conduct that distinguish between acceptable and unacceptable behaviour eg the Hippocratic Oath, the Ten Commandments, Sheikh “Al-Tabari” ( A.D.) ‘The Wisdom of Heaven’ But we can interpret and apply common ethical norms differently Standards set (codes/rules/policies) by institutions, disciplines and professions to suit particular aims and goals

Reasons for ethics in research Promote the aims of knowledge, truth and avoidance of error; Promotes the values essential to collaborative work eg trust, accountability, mutual respect and fairness; Ensure researchers are accountable to the public; Helps build public support for research (trust and integrity); Norms of research helps support a variety of other moral and social values eg social responsibility, human rights, animal welfare, compliance with the law and public health and safety.

What is internet research? Research that: (a)utilizes the internet to collect data or information eg surveys, archiving, data scraping; (b)studies how people use and access the internet eg collecting and observing activities or participating sns, websites, games, blogs, virtual worlds; (c)Utilizes or engages in data processing, analysis or storage of datasets, databanks etc; (d)Studies software, code and internet technologies; (e)Examines the design or structures of systems, interfaces, pages and elements; (f)Employs visual and textual analysis, semiotic analysis, content analysis to study the web, internet-facilitated media forms; (g)Studies large scale production, use and regulation of the internet by govts, industries, corporations and military forces. (Markham & Buchanan 2012)

Guidelines versus Codes Existing codes, principles and rules of ethics not necessarily adaptable into the online world. Ethical research needs to remain flexible Be responsive to diverse contexts Be adaptable to continually changing technologies “an adaptive, inductive approach can yield potentially more ethically legitimate outcomes than a simple adherence to a set of instantiated rules” Markham & Buchanan (2012)

Tensions and Considerations

Human Subject Public/Private Data (Text)/ Persons Source: Association of Internet Researchers

A question on collecting data should you run your data collection through existing social media accounts (i.e.: ask participants to friend and act on a FB page, send in things on a hashtag)

Facebook Core Data Science Avg user potentially has half a dozen “experiments” running on them at any one time Users as subjects The mood manipulation experiment Did Facebook breach any ethical guidelines or standards?

Facebook experiment Manipulation of Facebook user’s experience for research: Kramer, A., Guillory, J & Hancock, J. (June 2, 2014). “Experimental Evidence of Massive- Scale Emotional Contagion Through Social Networks”. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 111: )

Anonymity, Pseudonymity, Retrievability What is the difference? Is there such a thing as anonymity? Protecting “public” data used in research to reduce harm

Interviewing in virtual worlds Is an avatar a human participant when it comes to internet research ethics? Interview of marginalised people in Second Life – Jonathan Cabiria

History of Ethics (in a nutshell) Medical ethics Ancient Egypt – Amen-Hu-Tep – physician, medical ethics following Ma’at – patron of truth, justice and universal harmony Hippocrate’s oath – medical ethical principles ‘First do no harm…’ Sheikh “Al-Tabari” ( A.D.) ‘The Wisdom of Heaven’ “Al-Razi” ( A.D.) 20 th century medical ethics → research ethics Nuremberg Code of Ethics 1949 – Council for International Organizations of Medical Science (WHO & UNESCO) 1964 – World Medical Association ‘Declaration of Helsinki’ (updated) 1974 – National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research