This strikes me as being a bit onerous, and it would probably be worth suggesting the F2F or phone comparison to the reviewer. F2F, in particular, could be far less private than an IM conversation -- is it verboten to meet an interviewee in a coffee shop? To be clear, is the reviewer's issue that the conversation might be intercepted, rather than the log later stolen out of your archive? Maybe also offer to make explicit to participants that these platforms are not necessarily secure. FWIW, my IRB recently approved a similar study, which I'm currently conducting, and I think trying to force people into some new, encrypted IM platform that they didn't already know would be a big barrier to participation. My group has interviewed people over Skype, AIM, Facebook chat and Google chat, all in response to interviewee preferences. Aaron On Wed, Mar 7, 2012 at 12:41 PM, Jenni Whitmer <jmariewhitmer@gmail.com> wrote:
I'm in the midst of revising an IRB protocol for my dissertation. I will be interviewing fashion bloggers about their experiences with blogging and their thoughts on the relation between blogging and fashion media. The bloggers I will be interviewing are all public figures, to one degree or another, and I don't see the questions I'm asking as being very sensitive in nature. I planned to interview respondents using their choice of Skype or instant messaging service. The IRB reviewer asked me to clarify how I plan to ensure privacy and confidentiality over Skype and IM specifically because they are online. I'm a little unsure of what to say. I suppose I can't guarantee privacy 100% over a public network, but is the threat really much more notable than being overheard during a face to face or phone interview? I was wondering if anyone had any advice or could refer me to any articles that address this issue. Are there any IM programs I could use that might minimize threats to privacy?
-- Jennifer Whitmer, MA Dept. of Sociology University of Nevada, Las Vegas Las Vegas, NV 89154-5033 phone: 440-429-5957 _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
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