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Accounting for Privacy in Citizen Science: Ethical Research in a Context of Openness

Authors:

Elizabeth WarrickAuthors Info & Claims

CSCW '17: Proceedings of the 2017 ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing

Pages 2124 - 2136

https://doi.org/10.1145/2998181.2998305

Published: 25 February 2017 Publication History

Abstract

In citizen science, volunteers collect and share data with researchers, other volunteers, and the public at large. Data shared in citizen science includes information on volunteer location or other sensitive personal information; yet, volunteers do not typically express privacy concerns. This study uses the framework of contextual integrity to understand privacy accounting in the context of citizen science, by analyzing contextual variables including roles; information types; data flows and transmission principles; and, uses, norms, and values. Findings show that uses, norms, and values-including core values shared by researchers and public volunteers, and the motivations of individual volunteers' have a significant impact on privacy accounting. Overall, citizen science volunteers and practitioners share and promote openness and data sharing over protecting privacy. Studying the context of citizen science offers an example of contextually-appropriate data sharing that can inform broader questions about research ethics in an age of pervasive data. Based on these findings, this paper offers implications for designing data and information flows and supporting technologies in public and voluntary data sharing projects.

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Kumar PZimmer MVitak J(2024)A Roadmap for Applying the Contextual Integrity Framework in Qualitative Privacy ResearchProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36537108:CSCW1(1-29)Online publication date: 26-Apr-2024
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Franzen DMüller-Birn CWegwarth O(2024)Communicating the Privacy-Utility Trade-off: Supporting Informed Data Donation with Privacy Decision Interfaces for Differential PrivacyProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36373098:CSCW1(1-56)Online publication date: 26-Apr-2024
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Index Terms

Accounting for Privacy in Citizen Science: Ethical Research in a Context of Openness
1. Social and professional topics
  1. Computing / technology policy

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cover image ACM Conferences

CSCW '17: Proceedings of the 2017 ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing

February 2017

2556 pages

ISBN:9781450343350

DOI:10.1145/2998181

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Charlotte P. Lee
University of Washington
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Program Chairs:
Louise Barkhuus
Stockholm University and Cornell Tech
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Marcos Borges
Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro
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Wendy Kellogg
IBM T.J. Watson Research Center

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Published: 25 February 2017

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February 25 - March 1, 2017

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https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-24-145-2024
Kumar PZimmer MVitak J(2024)A Roadmap for Applying the Contextual Integrity Framework in Qualitative Privacy ResearchProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36537108:CSCW1(1-29)Online publication date: 26-Apr-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3653710
Franzen DMüller-Birn CWegwarth O(2024)Communicating the Privacy-Utility Trade-off: Supporting Informed Data Donation with Privacy Decision Interfaces for Differential PrivacyProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36373098:CSCW1(1-56)Online publication date: 26-Apr-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3637309
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