An Introduction to Privacy Considerations in Research and Teaching

An Introduction to Privacy Considerations in Research and Teaching

Instructor: Qiana Johnson, Public Policy Librarian, Northwestern University Libraries

If you are teaching or conducting research, there are likely privacy considerations and regulations you haven't thought about:

Do you use commercial tools to track usage of your web sites? Do you know the details of their usage agreements and privacy policies?
With the survey software you are using, are you collecting more respondent data than you are intending?
Do you use social media platforms for providing content to your students and to interact with them?
Do you collaborate with researchers internationally? How can privacy regulations in other countries impact your work?

Privacy is not just information that we want to keep secret, but also about the information we are willing to share with others and how that information could potentially be used by others. Privacy considerations are frequently brought up relating to personal privacy, but there are also privacy considerations relating to research and teaching. This workshop will briefly cover a few different definitions of privacy, privacy regulations in different contexts, and considerations to keep in mind when using some commercial tools for research and teaching