Discuss and Assess #3 "Ensuring the Protection of Human Subjects As Digital Researchers"

I think it is as important as ever to discuss what digital researchers can do to ensure human subjects' protection because, with the occurrence of the Pandemic, digital research has to be becoming more popular. After all, traditional methods are harder to conduct, and it is harder to interact with participants because of the Pandemic. On another note, there must be some kind of ethical issues with the coronavirus's presence because if the researcher gets close to their participant/participants, there is a high risk involved of either the researcher or participants becoming infected with the virus. Yes, social distancing and mask-wearing will help tremendously against contracting the virus but for example, presently, for the IRB, do they take into account the Pandemic at all? Are there any specific protocols that researchers must follow and get approved by the IRB for these particular times when dealing with COVID-19 if they want to conduct in-person research?

To get back on track with digital researchers, how can we ensure human subjects' protection if we aren't even 100% sure if the individuals in the digital space we are researching are actual humans. They could be bots, and how do we protect against bots skewing the data collected?

Also, concerning the Marie Wallace TED talk video, the targeted ads and manipulation that occurs in the media and the internet space, such as on Facebook or Instagram, reminds me of a recent Netflix documentary that came out. It’s called The Social Dilemma. If you haven't watched it, I 10/10 recommend it really opens your eyes to the internet and how it controls us in different ways. I think her TED Talk and that Netflix documentary goes hand and hand with one another. They both make similar points regarding ethics on the internet. The Netflix documentary goes into a bit more detail regarding social media's downsides and how it controls our everyday lives/decisions.

Another point to make regarding the internet and digital research is that every other month I see an article where there is a data leak from a website or reputable company such as Google. How can privacy and confidentiality be ensured when global organizations can’t even ensure these things when it comes to the internet? How can companies stop these data leaks? Once they figure it out, it will open a path towards how digital researchers will be able to protect human participants more and more. Large organizations have to be transparent. As Wallace suggested within her TED Talk regarding the digital and the physical worlds and with the government and these big organizations, it has to start from cultural transparency.

I mean, look at Edward Snowden, for example. He can't come back to the U.S. and lives as a fugitive in Russia because he exposed the government for wrongly invading individuals’ privacy around the U.S. and the world. The government was surveilling so many individuals with their new digital technologies without knowledge or consent, and no one knew that the government was doing this. I mean, how can we expect cultural transparency when even our own government can’t seem to do it. Without this cultural transparency, digital research will become increasingly difficult because not many individuals would want to participate in digital research if the researcher can't fully ensure the protection of their rights in this digital space.

As our society moves into an ever more digital age and with the increasing number of falsities and misrepresentation of information circling the internet, how will that affect social network analysis in research? I mean, in the news, in 2020, the U.S. task force proposed lowering the age of screening for colon cancer to 45. I believe that what sparked this data analysis was the actor Chadwick Boseman dying from colon cancer in 2020. His death sparked many conversations within the social networking realm to ask whether individuals should be getting screened earlier than 50+. Do you think social media and the digital sphere will help quantitative/qualitative researchers in the future think about reevaluating previous data findings? Chadwick Boseman is a prime example of why digital social research practices need to be focused on because this kind of research can open eyes to societal issues that need to be adjusted. Through social network analysis, for example, participants can be protected by digital researchers in this digital atmosphere while at the same time valuable findings that will benefit society will come to fruition.

I think with anything involving the internet, so many questions and unknowns still exist, and as time evolves and digital technology evolves, it will become increasingly more challenging in my eyes for digital researchers to ensure protections for human subjects. I think digital researchers have to try to the best of their ability to protect human subjects with processes such as going through an IRB to ensure one is staying within ethical guidelines of research and taking steps to ensure confidentiality, anonymity, and privacy of the human research participant.