Our informed consent template is here: http://www.compliance.gatech.edu/IRB/informed.shtml The old version used to say something like (paraphrasing) "We will keep records confidential. However, you should be aware that research records can be obtained by a court subpoena." Interestingly, I don't see it in the current template. I'm not sure when they took that out or why. How much you warn folks about stuff like this depends on the details of the study. There are definitely situations where this is important. Clearly my friend at CDC who is studying risky health behaviors among gay men meeting eachother in chatrooms needs a different level of precaution than someone studying ad-hominem attacks on the AoIR list, for example. ;-) This paper might be of interest: "Studying the Amateur Artist: A Perspective on Disguising Data Collected in Human Subjects Research on the Internet", http://www.nyu.edu/projects/nissenbaum/ethics_bru_full.html Internet research ethics is HARD. And fascinating. Getting mad at your IRB is not constructive. It's your job to build a positive and gracious relationship with them, and do your best to educate them on the subtlety of the issues. Square one is making sure they know that you take this stuff seriously and recognize that IRB oversite is important and you appreciate all the mostly thankless hard work they do. Step two is investing the time to have a detailed conversation about the details, providing published references as appropriate. YMMV, Amy Amy Bruckman Associate Professor College of Computing Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta, GA 30332-0760 Tel: 404-894-9222 Fax: 404-894-3146 Email: asb@cc.gatech.edu Web: http://www.cc.gatech.edu/~asb/