No Humans Here

Many research communities routinely conduct activities that fall outside the bounds of traditional human subjects research, yet still frequently rely on determinations institutional review boards (IRBs) or similar regulatory bodies to scope ethical decision-making. Presented as a U.S. university-based fictional memo describing post-hoc IRB study about social media and public health, this design fiction draws inspiration from current debates uncertainties in HCI computing around issues such use data, privacy, open science, unintended consequences, order highlight limitations arbiters ethics importance forward-thinking considerations researchers communities.