Informed Consent API
Implement an API / Bulk access call to notify users that their tweets were / are used in a study, with the option to opt-out, or opt-in to more information from the researcher. Maybe a DM with links to IRB / Home Institution / Researcher contact details?
Ideally, i'd like to notify and ask permission from people - in the past, i've implemented this as a Twitter list, adding people to give them some notification - but this doesn't give people an easy opt-out.
Given the number of times data is used, maybe an equivalent to the list of advertisers is also viable? Similar idea, API to submit User / Tweet IDs, and a section in the Settings showing a list of all the researchers that have used your data - exactly the same as the Advertisers list in "Tailored audiences" report.
Igor Brigadir
shared this idea
5 comments
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Clement Levallois
commented
This would increase so much the ethical standing of our research. "Reasonable expectation of privacy" (if I remember the T&Cs correctly) can be tested / implemented by asking directly the users under research to stay or withdraw from the dataset being collected.
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Laura Wrubel
commented
I work with academic researchers and archivists who study a range of topics on Twitter. This informed consent feature would provide a useful tool for them to conduct research in an ethically responsible way and interact with the creators of that media respectfully, integrated into Twitter.
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Thomas Padilla
commented
I also support this idea. As archives and libraries look to collect twitter data, and provide perpetual access to it, we want to be responsible stewards, sensitive to the people that are evidenced in these collections. Local university IRB is generally not helpful with these questions and Twitter users are put into potentially vulnerable positions. Building in an informed consent feature would be a positive, honestly overdue step in the right direction.
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Bergis Jules
commented
YES! This would be huge for our work around ethical collection of Twitter data for research and long term preservation. We have found that people want to know when their tweets are being used by academics or archivists. This would be super useful as we continue to try and find new ways to communicate with content creators on Twitter through our applications.
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Ed Summers
commented
I want to second this idea. In the Documenting the Now project (https://docnow.io) we've been working to create tools to create archives of events that have happened, initially focused on the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson. Consent and participation are very important to our project, particularly because we are talking about a users tweets and media being archived and preserved for historical research. Being able to interact with content creators in a meaningful way without being flagged as a spammer would be a huge step forward.