Implementing ethics for a mobile app deployment

Abstract

This paper discusses the ethical dimensions of a research project in which we deployed a personal tracking app on the Apple App Store and collected data from users with whom we had little or no direct contact. We describe the in-app functionality we created for supporting consent and withdrawal, our approach to privacy, our navigation of a formal ethical review, and navigation of the Apple approval process. We highlight two key issues for deployment-based research. Firstly, that it involves addressing multiple, sometimes conflicting ethical principles and guidelines. Secondly, that research ethics are not readily separable from design, but the two are enmeshed. As such, we argue that in-action and situational perspectives on research ethics are relevant to deployment-based research, even where the technology is relatively mundane. We also argue that it is desirable to produce and share relevant design knowledge and embed in-action and situational approaches in design activities.

A Large-Scale Study of iPhone App Launch Behaviour

“…with different decisions on the filtering of outliers, and what data to discard from a user whose log looks partly corrupted. At an even earlier stage, different data might be recorded due to differing research questions, technical constraints across platforms, or rules enforced by App Stores or ethical policies at institutions [39]. For example, in this study we elect not to log user location beyond broad country-level information, preventing location-specific comparisons.…”

“…Apple also places restrictions on apps running in the background, which is necessary in order to constantly monitor certain aspects of phone state. Even where technical workarounds can be found to overcome backgrounding restrictions, Apple will still enforce this rule during the app review process [39], and prevent such software from being released through the official App Store. As such, AppTracker was released via an unofficial third-party repository for jailbroken iOS devices (see [32] for details), and our data is gathered solely from such devices.…”

Mapping and Taking Stock of the Personal Informatics Literature

“…For example, two publications briefly mentioned that privacy concerns might impact adoption or use of tracking technology [107,134]. Other publications discuss concerns around informing participants that their self-tracked data may be used in research studies [238,246] or that tracking technologies may embed power relations [153] or manipulate people's behaviors [112]. Other publications pointed to privacy and ethics as potential concerns for the future of systems they design [108] or open questions for the field at large [61].…”

Synchronous Text Messaging

“…Consent for logging is gained in-app (following [42]), and informed consent for the trial participants was further gained in a face-to-face setting. Privacy settings in the app allow logging to be turned off.…”