Bartleby

Software for social media researchers to automate opt-out procedures

When social and behavioral research primarily happened in lab settings, people were generally always aware of their status as research participants; but as this research moved online to social media platforms, people are now included in data collection by default — frequently without their knowledge. This newfound possibility of passive participation in research has required researchers to apply ethics procedures in new ways. For instance, online studies reduce the viability of prior informed consent: a scientist studying online speech during a political debate cannot predict in advance who will participate in conversations during the event.

Bartleby is a system for automatically notifying data subjects after data collection and directing them to a web interface where they have a chance to opt out by deleting their data. Bartleby takes a procedure known as debriefing, historically used in deception-based lab studies, and applies it in a new context online.

Links

• Blog post: Designing and Evaluating Research Ethics Systems
• Bartleby code: https://github.com/jonathanzong/bartleby