Conducting an Ethical Study of Web Traffic

John Duncan presented on the ethical aspects of network research conducted with university dorm students as subjects. He detailed the ethical design of the study and his experiences with the Institutional Review Board (IRB) at Indiana University. John also reviewed the state of ethical research standards while providing a charge for improved collaboration between ethics boards and researchers. Up front, John offered his conclusion highlights: that network researchers now have little incentive to follow the rules, that the rules are poorly defined to begin with, and that IRBs are neither fully equipped nor aware of what network research is, let alone how to deal with it.