Survey: further fail (via eruthros)

[jonquil]

There may be an innocent explanation, but the researchers appear to have cross-referenced one LJ poster's survey responses with his/her LJ id. "fail_machine: Thanks for your droll responses to the survey questions. Your observations are as helpful as others' responses (and more entertaining!)"

More evidence: tacit asked, under her LJ name, for her survey responses to be deleted. They were. "I posted with my LJ username here, and that plus the survey are the total of the communication I've had with them. So, yes, their idea of anonymity is horrible. I'm assuming IP logging. *shudders*"

MAI SURVEY ETHICZ LET ME SHOW YOU THEM.

They claim they didn't, but they also claim they didn't delete data, and tacit says hers are gone. There would have been no way to connect tacit's cookie with her LJ post except by IP address.  Watch eruthros's post for ongoing information.

Do not interact with these people.

Comments

[From: sara]

The whole business seems very suspect. Not least because their statement about what data they're trying to collect and what questions they want to tackle with it is incoherent. It's a mess, theoretically and methodologically (and I'm not even going to get into the question of how you can judge the statistical reliability of a sample you've recruited online and not screened at all), and if it's been anywhere near any kind of human research review committee, I'll be very surprised.

It might be a scam; it might just be incompetence. Either way, I don't know why one would share anything like personal information with these people.

[From: elf]

This post has been included in a linkspam roundup.