A Breach of Research Ethics

Source: Take Survey or Face Fine, Everyone Told

This is quite an intriguing piece. For the first time, a household survey, that is for all intents and purposes, strictly used for research, must be mandatory and completed or else there will be dire consequences. What is surprising is that not only that the research members actually persist in having your input, (that was just for the phonecalls), but they even pay a personal visit in the late hours to persuade you again. Apparently he need not fill in his address details in the survey.

The main concern is that, whatever instuition, be it a government or an intelligence agency, if it intends to carry out what it deems to be "research", must proceed with a code of ethics in mind. It doesn't imply that a simple adherance to rules and guidelines is sufficient, but the participant must be also approached ethically; his/her consent must be obtained, his well-being (even for a survey questionaire) must be assured and in no way, should a participant be coerced to volunteer any information he/she is not comfortable with. Call it what you want, but if a threat is needed to elicit private information, then clearly it's not an innoucous collection of information for a survey. It's something else altogether.

Afterword: Au Waiping has also written a very important and verxing piece on the issue. It truly deserves to be read.