How can digital trace data (DTD) be collected, linked to survey data, and shared in a legal and ethical manner that maintains utility?

> Understanding (Offline/Online) Society: Linking Survey and Digital Trace Data

Summary

The public nature of some digital trace data (DTD) that makes them so accessible to researchers also means that, in their raw form, individuals are identifiable from them. For example, the text of a post on X can easily be searched and attributed to an individual. Even indirect measures (e.g. number of followers, times of posts, etc.) can, in combination, enable an individual to be identified.

This is problematic as, although these data may be public and users agree to terms and conditions that say the data they produce may be used for research, they may not have read or fully appreciated the context or considered this at the point of posting the information online. Further, when we link these data to an individual’s survey data (which are not public), this would de-anonymise the survey responses. However, anonymising data to minimise risk of harm to participants (an approach typically employed by survey researchers) risks undermining the additional utility of the DTD for certain types of analysis.

The legal and ethical issues of combining survey data with DTD, but also sharing and archiving it, while maintaining utility and security is therefore an area of much academic interest that currently lacks concrete case studies.

Outputs

2024

Paper: Linking survey with Twitter data: examining associations among smartphone usage, privacy concern and Twitter linkage consent

Presentation: How can digital trace data be collected, linked to survey data, and shared in a legal and ethical manner that maintains utility? (Slides 1) (Slides 2) (Slides 3) (Video)

2023

Presentation: Linking survey and social media data: Experiences and Evidence.

Paper: Epicosm—a framework for linking online social media in epidemiological cohorts

Talk: International approaches to the legal, governance and ethical challenges of social media and digital behavioural data for researchers and research infrastructures

Presentation: Linking without unmasking: dwelling on framework for safe linkage of twitter and survey data

2022

Book chapter: Linking Twitter and Survey Data: Gaining Consent, Making the Link, and Maintaining Data Security

2020

Paper: Linking survey and twitter data: Informed consent, disclosure, security, and archiving

Presentation: Linking Twitter and Survey Data

Paper: Methodological Briefing: Linking Survey and Social Media Data

2019