The practical and ethical challenges in acquiring and sharing digital trace data: Negotiating public-private partnerships

Abstract

The ubiquity of digital devices and the increasing intensity of users’ interactions with them create vast amounts of digital trace data. Companies use these data to optimize their services or products, but these data are also of interest to researchers studying human behavior. As most of these data are owned by private companies and their collection requires adherence to their terms of service, research with digital trace data often entails some form of public-private partnership. Private companies and academic researchers each have their own interests, some of which are shared, while others may conflict. In this article, we explore different types of private-public partnerships for research with digital trace data. Based on general considerations and particular experiences from a research project with linked digital trace data, we propose strategies for identifying and productively negotiating both shared and conflicting interests in these relationships.