Privacy and confidentiality matters

Excerpted from IRB proposal:

E. Confidentiality Issues
16. All records, field notes, and information related to the activities of any participant in the study will be maintained in strongly encrypted form ; the notes themselves (even though encrypted) and subsequent publications will omit real names, will not use real handles, place names, or other particulars that could be used to identify the participants and place them at risk. Participants are to decide on meeting times, places, and the participants in any gathering larger then one on one. All records are kept in such a manner that no one but the researcher can have access; there is no 'back door' for emergency access. All participants will be aware of the nature of the study, the precautions I will be taking, will be allowed to remove themselves from the study at will, and will be allowed to scrutinize resultant work prior to publication. Records will not contain personal identifiers at all, and will be destroyed within one year of publication. Audio recordings (all digital, and encrypted) will be erased upon transcription and verification, and in no case later than prior to publication. No personal or place identifiers will be used in the publication whatsoever, and data will not be shared with other researchers. No further use of data is expected because of the risk of continued possession post publication.

M. Informed consent

20. Written consent is untenable in the case of this research.
a. The subjects of the study generally operate under pseudonyms specifically to conceal their identities, even from the researcher; and so, requiring a signed consent form would actually violate their wishes.

b. The foremost risk to the subjects is the revelation of their actual identity and the affiliation of that identity with the practices under study. As stated in the research proposal and repeated in this document, no actual link, even in the encrypted notes, between the pseudonyms used by the researcher in the fieldnotes and the subjects' actual identities or public 'handles' will be made. Nor will any such connection be made in any publication or other format. Thus, the only record linking the subjects with the study and the activities under question would be such signed consent forms.