Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Comment
  • Published:

Enhancing the ethics of user-sourced online data collection and sharing

Nature Computational Science volume 3, pages 660–664 (2023)Cite this article

Subjects

Social media and other internet platforms are making it even harder for researchers to investigate their effects on society. One way forward is user-sourced data collection of data to be shared among many researchers, using robust ethics tools to protect the interests of research participants and society.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: NIO ethics interventions, mapped to the ends each serves.

References

  1. Freelon, D. Political Communication 35, 665–668 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Morstatter, F., Pfeffer, J., Liu, H. & Carley, K. Proc. Int. AAAI Conf. on Web And Social Media 7, 400–408 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Lazer, D. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. 117, 21–22 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. González-Bailón, S. et al. Science (in the press).

  5. Meyer, M. N. J. Law Med. Ethics 48, 60–73 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Meyer, M. N. Adv. Meth. Practices Psychol. Sci. 1, 131–144 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Beauchamp, T. L. & Childress, J. F. Principles Of Biomedical Ethics 8th edn (Oxford Univ. Press, 2019).

  8. Crawford, K. & Schultz, J. Boston College Law Rev. 55, 93–128 (2014).

    Google Scholar 

  9. Vayena, E. & Madoff, L. In The Oxford Handbook Of Public Health Ethics (eds Mastroianni, A. C., Kahn, J. P. & Kass, N. E.) 354–366 (Oxford Univ. Press, 2019).

  10. Fazelpour, S. & Danks, D. Phil. Compass 16, e12760 (2021).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Barocas, S. & Nissenbaum, H. In Privacy, Big Data, And The Public Good (eds Lane, J., Stodden, V., Bender, S. & Nissenbaum, H.) 44–75 (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2014).

  12. Zook, M. et al. PLOS Comput. Biol. 13, e1005399 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Jobin, A., Ienca, M. & Vayena, E. Nat. Mach. Intell. 1, 389–399 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Wilbanks, J. Design issues in e-Consent. J. Law Med. Ethics 46, 110–118 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Doerr, M. et al. AJOB Empir. Bioethics 12, 72–83 (2021).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Kaye, J. et al. Eur. J. Hum. Genet. 23, 141–146 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Budin-Ljøsne, I. et al. BMC Med. Ethics 18, 4 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Robertson, R. E. et al. Nature 618, 342–348 (2023).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

For very helpful conversations, we thank the members of NIO’s Ethics Advisory Board: M. Doerr, N. Kass, J. McNealy, A. Rubel, E. Vayena and P. Williams. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under grant number 2131929 (PIs D.L., C.W. and D.C.). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Bioethics and Decision Sciences, Geisinger Health System, Danville, PA, USA

    Michelle N. Meyer

  2. Behavioral Insights Team, Steele Institute for Health Innovation, Geisinger Health System, Danville, PA, USA

    Michelle N. Meyer

  3. Department of Philosophy and Religion, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA

    John Basl

  4. Ethics Institute, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA

    John Basl

  5. Khoury College of Computer Sciences, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA

    David Choffnes, Christo Wilson & David M. J. Lazer

  6. Cybersecurity and Privacy Institute, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA

    David Choffnes & Christo Wilson

  7. College of Social Sciences and Humanities, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA

    David M. J. Lazer

  8. Network Science Institute, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA

    David M. J. Lazer

  9. The Institute for Quantitative Social Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA

    David M. J. Lazer

Authors
  1. Michelle N. Meyer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. John Basl
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. David Choffnes
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Christo Wilson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. David M. J. Lazer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

D.L., D.C. and C.W. conceived and acquired funding for the project described here (NIO). M.N.M. and J.B. conceived the ethics framework for NIO. M.N.M., J.B. and D.L. wrote the first draft. All authors read, revised and approved the paper.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to David M. J. Lazer.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Peer review

Peer review information

Nature Computational Science thanks Katie Shilton, Sarah Gilbert, and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Meyer, M.N., Basl, J., Choffnes, D. et al. Enhancing the ethics of user-sourced online data collection and sharing. Nat Comput Sci 3, 660–664 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43588-023-00490-7

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s43588-023-00490-7

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing