Interviews

[Krisztina Zajdo]

Dear Colleagues, 

I need to move a research project online, due to the situation that is due to COVID - 19.

I am gathering interviews for a qualitative research project. I am interviewing parents who are rearing children with a langauge disorder.

 

When we started, the interviews with parents were taken in person in a home environment. I need to do interviewing online from now on.

Does anyone have a suggestion for a way of making sure the interviews are secure (e.g., nobody can make a recording except the interviewer; nobody can break into the system)? I have heard about the issues with Zoom. I need to be extra careful with how I am applying for a new ethics clearance - this issue is obviously a major one. 

I am primarily looking for "free" options to do this. But I am also willing to consider service providers who can guarantee the safety of the online interview and the recording.

Please let me know if you know of any options.

Best,

Kris

[jkhart...@gmail.com]

So first disclaimer: this isn't really something anyone in our group does, so I don't know much about it. I know a lot of developmental labs are using video chat. I checked this recent Webinar, but I didn't see much about security, at least in skimming the transcript. Hyo Gweon has provided a comprehensive tutorial on doing kid studies via Zoom. 

I'm curious which security issues with Zoom you are referring to. Most of what I've heard about is Zoom-bombing; people who have permission to be in the meeting posting pornography or things like that. Here is a post that has some details on how to protect yourself. 

That said, you might try using Signal, which is specifically designed for security. WhatsApp is supposed to also be pretty good. See some info here. 

You are probably doing this, but don't forget to address the security of your data storage. I've known researchers who were very concerned about Web security while keeping identifiable data on an unsecured laptop that is connected to the Web. I wouldn't be surprised if in most labs, the primary security risk is post-collection. 

Ultimately, nothing is totally secure, whether online or in person. I would consider both how valuable the information you are collecting is and how potentially damaging it is to your subjects. Are you interviewing North Korean dissidents about their upcoming coup plot? Because then you know there's a state actor who has the capability to break any system and who is highly motivated to gain this information. You're going to need more security than if you are asking random people about their summer vacation plans. 

Speaking of, I would think about how to avoid collecting data during the call. That is, can you keep the discussion in the call anonymous and collect names and demographic information through a separate service? Basically, the best security against privacy violations is don't have private information. This would be true for in-lab studies. I don't normally check whether my lab has been bugged, but if I were working with North Korean coup plotters, I would! I'd probably also hire serious security. 

I know that's not a precise answer. I don't think there are precise answers here. But hopefully these considerations are helpful. I also think reaching out to Hyo Gweon or Kim Scott (of LookIt) or some of the other people doing online kid interviews might land you some more info. If it does, please post what you learn here!

Joshua K Hartshorne

Assistant Professor

Boston College

[Lynn Santelmann]

You might also try the info-CHILDES group which is more specific to child language issues. I know data security has come up there. info-c...@googlegroups.com, Contact owner and manager

From what I've read, Zoom's issues have been (1) unclarity as to what data it shares, (2) the ability to non-meeting attendees to zoom bomb a meeting, and (3) lack of end-to-end encryption for the free accounts. I don't know how they've addressed the data-sharing, which might be a big concern for an IRB.  Zoom-bombing is easily prevented by requiring a meeting a password, opening a waiting room and not allowing users to join before host, and using a randomly generated meeting ID rather than your static personal ID.  They've recently said they'll do end-to-end encryption on all accounts. But it's important to note that Google Meet and Microsoft Teams don't have that either. If you have a university paid account, it shouldn't be that big of an issue.

I'd be more worried about where the recordings are stored and how they are protected. This is going to be an issue no matter what you use to do the interviews. Is your IRB going to be OK with them being stored in the cloud? when you download them, how will they be stored so that they are secure? Where will backups be stored? Who will have the password to those folders? 

[Becky Gilbert]

There is another video conferencing program called jitsi that does free end-to-end encryption. I haven't used it myself but some colleagues are trying it out soon.