Ethics and Internet Measurements

Authors

  • Jeroen van der Ham Technical University Delft, The Netherlands, National Cyber Security Centre, The Netherlands
  • Roland van Rijswijk-Deij University of Twente, The Netherlands, SURFnet bv, The Netherlands

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.13052/jcsm2245-1439.543

Keywords:

Ethics, internet measurement, ethical review, ethics committee, privacy, IRB

Abstract

Over the past decade the Internet has changed from a helpful tool to an important part of our daily lives for most of the world’s population. Where in the past the Internet mostly served to look up and exchange information, it is now used to stay in touch with friends, perform financial transactions or exchange other kinds of sensitive information. This development impacts researchers performing Internet measurements, as the data traffic they collect is now much more likely to have some impact on users.

Traditional institutions such as Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) or Ethics Committees are not always equipped to perform a thorough review or gauge the impact of Internet measurement studies. This paper examines the impact of this development for Internet measurements and analyses previous cases where Internet measurements have touched upon ethical issues. The paper proposes an early framework to help researchers identify stakeholders and how a network study may impact them. In addition to this, the paper provides advice on creating measurement practices that incorporate ethics by design, and also considers the role of third-party data suppliers in ethical measurement practices.

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Author Biographies

Jeroen van der Ham, Technical University Delft, The Netherlands, National Cyber Security Centre, The Netherlands

Jeroen van der Ham is a security researcher at the NCSC-NL since 2015. In his current research he focuses on privacy and security, as well as ethics in security research. He has published on ethical analyses of research and education, network monitoring, and semantic descriptions of computer networks and associated infrastructures. He currently holds positions at the TU Delft as well as the University of Amsterdam, where he serves as ethics advisor.

Jeroen received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Amsterdam in 2010 for his thesis entitled “A Complex Model for Computer Networks, the Network Description Language”, after which he worked as a researcher at the University of Amsterdam until 2015.

Roland van Rijswijk-Deij, University of Twente, The Netherlands, SURFnet bv, The Netherlands

Roland van Rijswijk-Deij works for SURFnet since 2008, and is a researcher at University of Twente. At SURFnet, the National Research and Education Network in The Netherlands, Roland is responsible for SURFnet’s DNS and DNSSEC infrastructure. He also initiates and leads innovation projects in the area of Internet security and stability. Past innovation projects initiated by Roland have focused on DNS, DNSSEC, detecting and mitigating DDoS attacks, IPv6 and many other topics. Roland regularly presents his work in international networking venues, such as TNC, Internet2 conferences, IETF meetings, ICANN meetings, RIPE meetings and NANOG.

Roland received a cum laude Ph.D. degree from the University of Twente in June 2017, for his thesis entitled “Improving DNS Security: a Measurement-Based Approach”.

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Published

2017-10-06

How to Cite

1.
van der Ham J, Rijswijk-Deij R van. Ethics and Internet Measurements. JCSANDM [Internet]. 2017 Oct. 6 [cited 2025 Feb. 12];5(4):287-308. Available from: https://journals.riverpublishers.com/index.php/JCSANDM/article/view/6093

Issue

2016: Vol 5 Iss 4

Section

Articles