EAGER: Privacy in Citizen Science: An Emerging Concern for Research and Practice

公民科学是公众参与科学研究的一种合作形式。各种无线、蜂窝和卫星技术日益促进公民科学。使用这些技术收集和共享的数据可能会威胁到志愿者的隐私。这个项目将发现导致或减轻公民科学志愿者隐私问题的因素。这些发现可以通过探索公民科学协调员和志愿者使用的隐私保护实践来支持公民科学。通过对项目协调员和志愿者进行采访，本研究探讨了背景因素--包括数据类型、项目类型、角色、关系、权力结构、规范、动机和价值观--这些因素可能会阻止参与者识别和阐明侵犯隐私的行为，或者鼓励他们做出贡献，尽管发现了隐私问题。了解上下文隐私问题可以深入了解参与者为什么以及如何决定参与，分享和退出公民科学。由项目协调员组成的其他重点小组将把调查结果转化为可采取行动的政策和技术准则。 这项研究的结果将包括支持公民科学隐私的最佳实践和政策指南。这些成果将发表在由伍德罗·威尔逊国际学者中心和美国公民科学协会分发的白皮书中，以确保公共政策和公民科学界的广大受众受益于这项工作。

Citizen science is a form of collaboration where members of the public participate in scientific research. Citizen science is increasingly facilitated by a variety of wireless, cellular and satellite technologies. Data collected and shared using these technologies may threaten the privacy of volunteers. This project will discover factors which lead to, or allieviate, privacy concerns for citizen science volunteers. The findings could support citizen science by exploring the privacy protection practices utilized by citizen science coordinators and volunteers. Through interviews conducted with project coordinators and volunteers, this research explores contextual factors - including data types, project types, roles, relationships, power structures, norms, motivations, and values - which may prevent participants from identifying and articulating privacy violations, or encourage them to contribute despite identifying privacy concerns. Understanding contextual privacy concerns provides insights into why and how participants decide to participate, share, and opt out of citizen science. Additional focus groups with project coordinators would transform findings into actionable policy and technical guidelines. The results of this research will include best practices and policy guidelines for supporting privacy in citizen science. They will be published in a whitepaper distributed by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and the United States Citizen Science Association, ensuring that broad audiences in public policy and in the citizen science community benefit from this work.