Superficial Intelligence

Today I went to a very interesting seminar about ethics of research in online communities. I have heard about ethics often before, but never in this context. And it really brings up a lot of very interesting questions. Due to the nature of the internet, it is very hard to get written consent from everyone whose information or conversations you use for research. So, when is it right to use this data? Which data can be considered as public and which as private? For example, is it ethical to join an internet community using a fake profile, interacting with that community, and even recording conversations with members of that community?

I can remember at least three of the guidelines they talked about which I found interesting. One of them was that if you are not interacting with the human subject and only using information that is already publicly available, you shouldn't need their consent to use it. If you can find it using a search engine like Google, chances are it's safe to use. Another thing you have to consider is if there is a chance of harming the other person, either physically or psychologically, by using their data. Finally, one interesting topic they talked about was the reasonable expectations of privacy that a user has when using a site. When users post information to the web, they have an expectation of how private their information will remain. Usually, you expect information posted on sites that require logins and passwords to be less public. But if you leave a comment in a blog, you will expect that information to be more public.

There are many more questions that can be asked about ethics in online research. As in every other subject where ethics are involved, there is always a gray area between what is right and what is wrong. There is a lot of information on this topic on the internet that can help, but in the end it is each of us that must evaluate his or her work and decide whether it is ethical or not. Remember that research is simply about finding ways to help humanity and ethics is about not destroying it in the process.