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Category: Project

Description: The digital traces people leave through their use of various online platforms provide tremendous opportunities for studying human behaviour. However, the collection of these data is hampered by legal, ethical, and technical challenges. OSD2F/Digital Data Donation studies present a framework and tool for collecting these data through a data donation platform where consenting participants can securely submit their digital traces. By transparently requesting access to specific parts of this data for clearly communicated academic purposes, the privacy of participants is respected, and researchers are less dependent on commercial organisations that store this data in proprietary archives. In this project "legal and ethical considerations" we outline how researchers seeking to obtain participant data via OSD2F/Digital Data Donation Initiatives can obtain valid participant consent for the processing of a participant's personal data. We provide researchers a consent manual, as well as examplar templates for a consent form and privacy policy, in alignment with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).