However, I started having second thoughts, so what follows is to organize ideas and have it somewhere I can look back to.
2/n
What are the implications of using hacked data for research?
A short thread inspired by the fact that, before AWs took it down, #Parler was extensively hacked and user data was leaked.
However, I started having second thoughts, so what follows is to organize ideas and have it somewhere I can look back to.
2/n
First of all, there's an issue of quality. Data might be altered or incomplete, and the source cannot be considered accountable (assuming src is anonymous).
3/n
Finally, users’ privacy is at stake, since researchers could see material that users didn’t agree for other people to see.
4/n
This is all the more true in cases such as the #ParlerHack, where the leaked information is of particularly sensitive nature, and there’s a high risk of unintended consequences.
5/n
After all the data is out there, users are already exposed, and using the leaked information for rsrch (with some precautions) might not cause any additional harm.
Does this mean free for all then?
6/n
On practical grounds, there might be legal boundaries in place (depending on the context).
But more generally, from a deontology perspective I think that (as long as the resercher is not responsible for the hack) the picture is blurred.
7/n
On the other hand, I think the problem of users’ consent should not be bypassed as easily.
8/n
In fact it can be argued that using illegally obtained data for research purposes might legitimize (or even encourage) illegal or unethical behavior.
9/n
Do you know of any explicit guidelines in poli /soc sciences that address this issue?
n/n
https://t.co/IvcTXARoga
If I were a grad student in poli-sci /social psych / etc right now, I'd be getting my advisor to let me change my dissertation topic right now. The potential of this dataset is insane. https://t.co/0F5o6tUdYu
— Andrew Therriault (@therriaultphd) January 11, 2021
More from Internet
You May Also Like
I’m torn on how to approach the idea of luck. I’m the first to admit that I am one of the luckiest people on the planet. To be born into a prosperous American family in 1960 with smart parents is to start life on third base. The odds against my very existence are astronomical.
I’ve always felt that the luckiest people I know had a talent for recognizing circumstances, not of their own making, that were conducive to a favorable outcome and their ability to quickly take advantage of them.
In other words, dumb luck was just that, it required no awareness on the person’s part, whereas “smart” luck involved awareness followed by action before the circumstances changed.
So, was I “lucky” to be born when I was—nothing I had any control over—and that I came of age just as huge databases and computers were advancing to the point where I could use those tools to write “What Works on Wall Street?” Absolutely.
Was I lucky to start my stock market investments near the peak of interest rates which allowed me to spend the majority of my adult life in a falling rate environment? Yup.
Ironies of Luck https://t.co/5BPWGbAxFi
— Morgan Housel (@morganhousel) March 14, 2018
"Luck is the flip side of risk. They are mirrored cousins, driven by the same thing: You are one person in a 7 billion player game, and the accidental impact of other people\u2019s actions can be more consequential than your own."
I’ve always felt that the luckiest people I know had a talent for recognizing circumstances, not of their own making, that were conducive to a favorable outcome and their ability to quickly take advantage of them.
In other words, dumb luck was just that, it required no awareness on the person’s part, whereas “smart” luck involved awareness followed by action before the circumstances changed.
So, was I “lucky” to be born when I was—nothing I had any control over—and that I came of age just as huge databases and computers were advancing to the point where I could use those tools to write “What Works on Wall Street?” Absolutely.
Was I lucky to start my stock market investments near the peak of interest rates which allowed me to spend the majority of my adult life in a falling rate environment? Yup.
