The Ethics of computer research: A survey of user acceptance towards mobile HCI research practices and factor influencing the willingness to participate and to share information in research

摘要

Mobile technology is a recent research interest in HCI community; nevertheless, this novel technology poses new ethical issues. The technology allows researchers to employ various research practices, as well as to carry out remote research in a large scale; however, it also allows the access to user's personal information which can reveal their identity without user's awareness. In 2013, an ethical guideline was proposed by McMillan et. al [1], to tackle these ethical loopholes. However, the understanding how different research practices are accepted by users is lacking. In addition, what factors influence user's willingness to participate and to share their information in research is not much known. This paper surveyed user acceptance towards current mobile HCI research practices and factors influencing the willingness to participate and to share information in research. The results indicates that being informed of what data would be collected is the most crucial factor to the acceptability of research practices. It also has strong influence on the decision to participate in research.