Collecting data online: An exploration of ethical issues in e-research

The way in which transnational migrants maintain long-distance relationships and organise their daily life at the place of settlement has been revolutionised by the emergence of a large number of internet- and mobile phone-based platforms such as SMS texting, email, digital broadcast, chat, social network sites and voice over internet protocol. Following their respondents’ connections, many researchers are also finding their ways into these digital arenas and media. Drawing on an ethnographic study on the use of social network sites by Brazilian migrants residing in Belgium, this paper reflects on the ethical challenges of online data collection. The fact that participation on social network sites leaves online traces offers unprecedented opportunities for researchers. Even so, the specificities of this research setting also ask for a re-examination of the institutionalized understandings of research ethics. Ethnographers must learn how to apply standard principles of human subject protection to a research environment which differs in fundamental ways from the face-to-face research contexts for which they were conceived and designed. The easy access to online data, the ability of a researcher to record these data without the knowledge of participants, the complexities of obtaining informed consent and the question of ownership of online date fuel the need for directive guidelines for ethical online ethnographic research. In this paper, I overview some important issues and stances in the debate on these protocols, in order to allow an understanding of online research ethics, and, consequently, of the ethical responsibilities of online researchers.status: publishe