1. Lisa Blenkinsop
University of Guelph
ERHD*6000 Qualitative Analysis

2. The age of privacy is over.
Mark Zuckerberg, January 2010
Since the inception of social media there has been a cultural
shift towards sharing personal information online.
A participatory culture has been created in which individuals
allow worldwide access into their personal lives through blogs,
chat rooms, and social networking sites such as
Facebook and Twitter.
Zuckerberg claims that expectations of privacy
are no longer a social norm.

3. There are over 1,000,000,000
Facebook users worldwide.
Age distribution of Gender Distribution of
Canadian Facebook users (2012) Country distribution of Facebook users 2012/13 Canadian Facebook Users (2012)
These users are a source of large amounts of
qualitative data that is relatively inexpensive to collect.
http://www.socialbakers.com/facebook-statistics/

4. There is “blurred distinction” between
private and public lives and spaces on the Internet (Snee, 2008).
This blurring raises questions around the privacy of Facebook users in a research
context:
Do online social networking site users know that they can potentially be
used as research subjects?
Does putting information online imply consent?
Is data that is easily obtained online considered public?
Is observing individuals on a social networking site for research purposes
comparable to observing individuals in a public space for research purposes?
How is it possible to maintain confidentiality with data that easily Googled?

5.  Facebook has heavily influenced the blurring of privacy lines in the 21st century.
 Facebook’s privacy settings are constantly changing, making it difficult for users
to stay informed and alter their settings accordingly.
 Many Facebook privacy settings are public by default thereby allowing anyone to
view photos, posts, likes, friends of individual users, unless the user changes their
settings.
 Ironically, Randi Zuckerberg, sister of Mark and former Facebook marketing
director, accidentally publicly posted a Zuckerberg family photo that went viral:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eX6MGMQEOEA
 Facebook has been investigated by Canada’s Privacy Commission, the EU, the US
Federal Trade Commission and numerous privacy watchdogs.
 8 Facebook Privacy Flaps:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2012/09/25/f-facebook-privacy-
list.html

6.  Ethical clearance must be obtained for any research involving human participants.
 The online environment is changing so rapidly that it is difficult for research ethics
boards and policies to evolve quickly enough to reflect these changes.
 Online privacy is still a grey area.
 Many Canadian universities do not have a clearly outlined online research ethics
policy.
 Some researchers maintain that online research ethics is context-driven, others
believe that personal information that is online and public is fair game for
researchers (Snee, 2008).
 The University of Guelph considers any Facebook information that can be accessed
without “friending” someone to be public; privacy is dependent on the privacy
setting of the individual. Research on social networking sites is considered on a
case-by-case basis.

7. The Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for
research involving Humans (TCPS 2) states;
To qualify for an exemption from REB review, it must be demonstrated that the
information required for the project is:
 legally accessible and protected by law; or
 publicly accessible and free of reasonable expectations of privacy.
However, the TCPS 2 also states:
Be aware that there are situations where information is publicly accessible but the
people involved nevertheless have some expectation of privacy. In these cases, REB
review is required.

8. The question isn't, 'What do we want to know about people?', It's, 'What do
people want to tell about themselves?’
Mark Zuckerberg

9. Example of informed consent to use private Facebook profile data:
http://onlinesociability.org/informed-consent-form/
In the case of quotes about things you or your friends have done online (such as can be seen in
posts on your wall, or your tweets), these disguises could be vulnerable. Using a search
engine, a motivated person could break it. A person could take a quotation from the research
and use a search engine to find the actual page online.
Does not guarantee confidentiality for the research subject OR their Facebook friends as the
traceability of online data makes it difficult to insure.
While a participant may agree to share their Facebook profile information, their Facebook
friends have not agreed to share their private Facebook information for research.
Does not acknowledge the social harm that may occur from releasing user Facebook data.
By asking for informed consent, the researchers acknowledge the privacy of Facebook user
content and inform the participant of confidentiality issues.
They also gain access to private content.
In the context of ever-changing Facebook privacy settings, is it ethical to use Facebook data
without informed consent?

10. A picture is worth a thousand words: A content analysis Cultural Influences on Facebook photographs
of Facebook profile photographs (Hum et al, 2011) (Huang and Park, 2012)
Explored what college Facebook users posted in their Examined cultural influences and differences in Facebook
profile pictures and how this content differs by gender. profile photos between Taiwanese and American
undergraduate students.
Created table of researchers’ active Facebook friends who Used Facebook search engine to randomly select student
were in college and selected participants at random from profiles from 2 Taiwanese universities and 2 American
this table. universities.
Uses personal contact information obtained from Facebook No mention of obtaining informed consent, Institutional
friend profiles to obtain informed consent from Review Board (IRB), or Facebook policies.
participants.
Mentions International Review Board policy, and Facebook
policies.
Study treats Facebook profile pictures as private; Study treats Facebook profile pictures as public; presumes
presumes Facebook users have an expectation of privacy. that Facebook users do not have an expectation of
privacy.
According to Facebook’s Data Use Policy http://www.facebook.com/full_data_use_policy
Facebook profile and cover photos are always public.

11. Article reviews a Harvard-based research study, “Tastes, Ties and Time” (T3) that examined
social network dynamics of undergraduate students:
 With the consent of an anonymous American university and Facebook, researchers
downloaded Facebook profile data for an entire undergraduate cohort, 1640 students,
beginning in their first year, to be continued twice yearly for the remaining 3 years of
their degree.
 The research project was reviewed and approved by Harvard’s Committee on the Use of
Human Subjects.
 Informed consent was not obtained from the students, and no students were contacted
for further information or data collection.
 Only information that was available “by default” on Facebook network was included in
the study; gender, ethnicity, home state, nation of origin, political views, sexual
interests, college major, relational data and cultural interests.
 The university provided additional data on the students, including housing information,
which the researchers then linked to the students’ Facebook profile information.
 All identifying information was deleted or encoded immediately; data was coded for
race, ethnicity, political views, etc.
 Due to funding stipulations, the entire dataset was to be released in phases for public
use and further research studies.

12. After the release of the first set of data:
 The “anonymous” university, Harvard College, as well as some of the individuals in the
study, were easily identified because of the uniqueness of the data included, such as
student majors and ethnicity.
 The dataset was removed from public access, Harvard was accused of breaching
students’ privacy.
Zimmer (2010) concludes:
Merely having one’s personal information stripped from the intended sphere of the social
networking profile, and amassed into a database for external review becomes an affront to
the subjects’ human dignity and their ability to control the flow of their personal
information.
By failing to recognize that users might maintain strong expectations that information
shared on Facebook is meant to stay on Facebook…the T3 researchers have failed in their
duty to engage in ethically-based research.

13. Researchers from Tastes, Ties and Time (Lewis et al., 2008) conclude:
Open, evolving SNSs represent remarkable new research opportunities. These sites
provide users with templates that, while intended for recreational purposes and
organized presentation, are ideally suited for data collection and analysis.
 While Facebook opens up research opportunities in many disciplines, it also opens
up questions about how this data could and should be used.
 Recognition that Facebook profiles represent human participants is imperative.
 Facebook users expectations of privacy are paramount.
 As a researcher, you must consider the privacy implications of Facebook research,
and provide realistic expectations of confidentiality to participants.
 Work with your research ethics board on privacy and confidentiality.
 Research ethnics boards have both a challenge and an opportunity to create
flexible online research ethics policies.

14.  If you are a Facebook user, do you consider the information
you post to be public or private?
 Would you want your Facebook information to be used for
research without your knowledge?
 Would you give your consent to have your private Facebook
data used for research? Why or why not?
 If you were going to engage in research using Facebook
profiles, would you be comfortable insuring confidentiality?
 Would you use Facebook user profile data without consent, if
the information was publicly shared?
Thank you for sharing!

15. Huang, C-M., and Park D. (2012). Cultural Influences on Facebook photographs.
International Journal of Psychology. DOI:1-10.
Hum, N.J., Chamberlin, P.E., Hambright, B.L., Portwood, A.C., Schat, A.C., and
Bevan, J.L. (2011). A picture is work a thousand words: A content analysis of
Facebook profile pictures. Computers in Human Behavior. 27(2011):1828-1833.
Lewis, K., Kaufman, J., Gonzalez, M., Wimmer, A., & Christakis, N. (2008).
Tastes, Ties, and time: A new social network dataset using Facebook.com. Social
Networks, 30(4), 330–342.
Snee, H. (2008). Web 2.0 as a Social Science Research Tool. ESRC Government
Placement Scheme, The British Library. 1-34.
Zimmer, M. (2010). “But the data is already public”: on the ethics of research in
Facebook. Ethics and Information Technology. 12:313-325.