An Online Consent Maturity Model: Moving from Acceptable Use Towards Ethical Practice

Achieving informed consent in online and digital contexts is challenging for several reasons. One reason is that conveying the meaning and implications of agreements to individuals is hindered by legalistic formats obscuring the potential harm that can ensue from analytics of data collected in a socio-technical context, such as online. Furthermore, as technical capability advances, what can be achieved with data mining and initiatives outpaces statutory regulation, as well as the social norms that frame individual human understandings. It is argued that the paradigm that currently underpins informed consent in online settings draws on ethical positions that are either utilitarian or legalistic. In contrast, the adoption of an ethics of virtue approach as a new paradigm provides a framework for reconceptualising informed consent. Characteristics that are material for informed consent, shared by Online Analytics and Qualitative Longitudinal Research, provide the inspiration and basis for this interdisciplinary approach, with the application of lessons learned in the practice and theory of one discipline to another.

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