Ethics

To protect the privacy of individuals and the integrity of the Silverlining Project, we have developed a set of rules governing how we accept, store, clean, and preserve any data we receive or obtain which go beyond existing institutional standards. These rules were developed in dialogue with Harvard's Office of General Counsel and Harvard's Institutional Review Board. We discuss these principles in greater detail in the attached research paper. 
 

Obtaining Data

 

  1. We won’t breach systems looking for data, nor will we use any method to systematically look for unsecured data.

  2. We won’t pay for data.

  3. We won’t retain data that is of no research use.

  4. We won’t accept data that threatens individuals’ physical safety.

  5. We won’t share our sources for or locations of breached data.

 

Storing and Using Data
 

  1. We will store all our data on secure machines.

  2. We will clean and, to the best of our ability, anonymize all data we receive.

  3. We won’t share raw data, only the data we clean and anonymize.

  4. We won’t try to identify individuals in our data sets.

 

Sharing Data
 

  1. We will only share cleaned, anonymized data.

  2. We will only share data for research purposes, never for commercial gain.

  3. We will only share data with qualified researchers, not with governments and not with researchers working on behalf of governments.

  4. We won’t accept payment to share our data.

  5. We require anyone who wants to use our data to sign a Data Use Agreement and to submit a research proposal with a clear statement of ethical considerations.

 

Research Paper

 

< Abstract >