The post “Ethic Consideration: Dealing with Privacy Issue of Aura” discussed privacy issues from the technology perspective, so this post will go through special function settings.
Social media, as Web-based computer-mediated tools, allow users to share or exchange information, pictures or videos in the online community, such as Facebook, Twitter [1]. It helps people to express themselves and reach their friends and family easily with various functions (like real-time chat, personal profiles).
However, its openness of information also brings users some troubles. Information posted on social networking sites may be used for various purpose through different types of social media research techniques because of the openness of social networking sites. Twitter, as one of the biggest social networking sites, is becoming a popular channel that researchers can collect data from [2].
A significant number of tools and techniques helps researchers to collect and analyse data from Twitter (such as Twitonomy) [3]. As a result, it raises the concern that whether information on social networking sites should be public or private. Some people believe “people know that [the data is public] when they sign up” [2], so it could be used for anyone else. However, [4] stated that “it is problematic for researchers to justify their actions as ethical simply because the data are accessible. […] The process of evaluating the research ethics cannot be ignored simply because the data are seemingly public”.
In order to make a balance between different arguments, Aura will allow users to choose the status of their information. It will offer options for visibility of the information like scores, emotional profile etc. as private, public and friends only. When users choose private, their posts can only be accessed by themselves; when they choose public, everyone on the Internet can read it; and friends only will allow selected people (friends) read their content. Without permission from owners, other Internet users cannot get access to the score and results.
In addition, Aura will inform its users the real use of their information. For example, Aura would like to cooperate with other companies, via marketing and human resource sectors. First, the users should accept this feature when registering or later. Only users that have authorized this feature will take part in. In addition, we will inform our users about the use of their information by companies. Anytime they want to disable the feature, Aura will provide easy means to do so.
References:
[1] Golder, S., Ahmed, S., Norman, G., & Booth, A. (2017). Attitudes toward the ethics of research using social media: A systematic review. Journal of medical Internet research, 19(6).
[2] Townsend, L., & Wallace, C. (2016). Social media research: A guide to ethics. University of Aberdeen.
[3] Vis, F. (2013). Twitter analytics: some thoughts on sampling, tools, data, ethics and…. [online] Slideshare.net. Available at: https://www.slideshare.net/Flygirltwo/twitter-analytics-some-thoughts-on-sampling-tools-data-ethics-and-user-requirements [Accessed 26 Apr. 2018].
[4] Boyd, D. & Crawford, K (2012). Critical questions for big data. Information, Communication and Society. 15 (5). 662-679.