Lois, I've made it clear in other posts that I believe public information is fair game for researchers. In answer to your question about increase of danger to "subjects," there is the possibility that researchers will increase the exposure of content that could be damaging to the poster. On the other hand, the intent of research is to understand and improve. In balance, I believe there is greater good when all available data is considered. This is not to say that researchers should become like the paparazzi but to discarding public data cripples research. Charlie Balch Very much my own views and not my institutions
... how are researchers more dangerous to their online subjects than any other person who might access their publicly available site?
Lois Ann Scheidt Doctoral Student - School of Library and Information Science, Indiana University, Bloomington IN USA