1. Online Data Collection: Ethics
Dan Hoyt
Director, Social & Behavioral Sciences Research Consortium Institutional Official, Institutional Review Board & Research Integrity Officer

2. Online survey data collection is human subjects research and involves the same review and approvals as required for any in-person data collection..

3. You will follow the standard human subjects IRB protocol submission and review processes.

4. No matter how low- risk and simple your project, be aware that your protocol is just one of many protocols submitted and awaiting review.

5. Pay attention to the estimated time to approval and plan accordingly
Pay attention to the estimated time to approval and plan accordingly. The more accurate your initial protocol submission, the quicker the time to approval.

6. Online Data
For online surveys special attention must be paid to how participants data will be secured.

7. Online Data Security What online survey platform are you using?
What are the data transmission, data storage, and data protection protocols?

8. Key Questions: Data Security
Third party online survey companies (i.e., Qualtrics, Survey Monkey, Zoomerang, etc.) differ in practices for how and where survey data is stored and maintained.
Within software platforms, there are often options for data security and transmission.

9. Online Data Security How will the data be maintained?
Access and password protected computers?
Password protected cloud storage?
What are the Terms Of Service for cloud storage company?
This information is necessary for the IRB to assess the level of security and subsequent risk to participants data.

10. Online Data – Special Considerations
Does the survey use https encryption?
If yes, are there controls in place to prevent respondents from accidentally entering survey data via an http protocol rather than https?

11. Online Data – Special Considerations
Are the survey responses confidential or anonymous? Describe the details of how confidentiality or anonymity is ensured. Are the respondents' IP addresses masked from the researcher?

12. Online Data – Special Considerations
Information regarding data security is not limited to the protocol submission. The consent form/process must adequately address data security.

13. Example Consent Language
We believe there are no known risks associated with this research study; however, as with any online related activity the risk of a breach of confidentiality is always possible. To the best of our ability your answers in this study will remain confidential. We will minimize any risks by ...

14. Summary
In summary …
Online surveys provide a number of advantages to a researcher.
But, research protections are typically more complex than with personal data collection.
They require additional attention to detail in both IRB protocol and research subject consent processes.