Ethical, legal, and technological challenges of data collection from digital platforms |
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| Coordinator 1 | Dr Heleen Janssen (Institute for Information Law, University of Amsterdam) |
| Coordinator 2 | Dr Bella Struminskaya (Methodology & Statistics, Social Sciences, Utrecht University) |
| Coordinator 3 | Dr Laura Boeschoten (Methodology & Statistics, Social Sciences, Utrecht University) |
Collection of digital trace data offers great potential in advancing academic research. Such data can enrich social science research by providing objective and rich information that is potentially free from recall error and social desirability and is in most cases cost-efficient. However, researchers have less control over data collection procedures when using APIs, data donation, or apps and IoT since they are dependent on the decisions and technical architectures that data controllers use. Challenges are multifaceted: technological and device-related, legal and ethical, as well as problems arising in compatibility over time, all of which can threaten the validity of research conclusions. For this session, we invite contributions that focus on practical issues relating to collecting digital trace data from digital platforms and devices, with a specific focus on restrictions arising from data controllers’ practices. Potential topics include quality of digital trace data especially completeness, biases, measurement errors, comparability over time due to technical changes, practical considerations including the design of ERB applications, as well as legal challenges potentially arising from obtaining consent, transparency obligations, access rights compliance, data protection impact assessments, or other law-related considerations. The objective of the session is to advance best practices and discuss recommendations to improve policy. Target audience includes researchers, survey practitioners, legal scholars and generally those involved in development of research infrastructures for digital trace data collection. We especially welcome a multidisciplinary perspective.