Submit your reading response by making a comment on this post. In your response, please respond to each of the prompts below. Please number your responses so it’s clear which response goes with which prompt.

Bednall, Adam, & Plocinski

1) In the section of social persuasion techniques, the techniques that the authors discuss include reciprocation, consistency, and commitment. Out of these three techniques, which do you feel is the most unethical? Which do you feel is the most acceptable? Explain your answers.

2) Near the bottom of page 162, there is a brief mention of the use of incentives for completing surveys/interviews. The authors return to this issue on page 166 where they discuss the use of paid panels. Can you think of one reason why paying participants could be ethically problematic? Can you think of one reason why it would be preferable from an ethical point of view? In both cases assume reasonable incentives, e.g., an hourly rate similar to what the person would make in their job.

Nunan and Di Domenico

3) One of the main issues the authors discuss is the fact that organizations are often collecting and storing all sorts of data not because they have a specific purpose or research question in mind, but in the hope that they will find something useful in those data at some point. The authors bring up this issue several times, as reflected in the following quotes:

• “This creates an unintended use paradox. How can consumers trust an organisation with information when the organisation does not yet know how the information might be used in the future?” (p. 5)
• “Currently the ability of organisations to collect and store data runs far ahead of their ability to make use of it (Jacobs 2009). As a function of storing any, and all, unstructured data regardless of potential use cases this means that combinations of data for which there are currently no capabilities to analyse could become subject to privacy breaches in the future.” (p. 5)
• “However, given that big data often disintermediates the collection from analysis of data, the challenge is raised over what consent is being sought, given that the purpose of data collection may not be known.” (p. 8)
• “Furthermore big data is built upon the use of unstructured data, which, by definition, are collected without necessarily having knowledge of the purpose to which it will be put in the future.” (p. 9)

Do you think it is ethically permissible to ask people to provide consent to collect such data when we have no idea how the data might be used, and whether such uses would benefit or harm the individual providing consent? Explain your answer.

4) Another major theme in the paper is reflected in the four quotes below.

• “For market research to prosper it requires the continuing cooperation of respondents (Bednall
  et al. 2010), both in terms of providing data for research studies and in giving permission for these data to be analysed. In an environment where there are issues around increasing non-cooperation by respondents (Jarvis 2002; Curtin et al. 2005), it is essential for market researchers to be at the forefront of  understanding emergent ethical and privacy issues. This is even more critical where regulatory change poses a potential threat to market researchers’ ability to collect data in the future.” (pp. 2-3)
• “However, for market research, the importance of access is instrumental to the ability to deliver the product. The history of marketing activity provides us with many examples of situations where regulators have responded reactively to public perceptions of over-zealous, or unethical, marketing activity. From the promotion of ineffective ‘patent’ medicines in the 19th century through to tobacco and alcohol in the 20th century, in sectors that generate negative externalities regulatory pressure is never far behind. Given the criticality of online data collection to market research, and the potential for personal data to become a similarly hot topic of the 21st century, for the successful realisation of the potential of big data in market research it is also necessary to be proactive in responding to potential privacy issues, even if these have
  yet to reach the public imagination.” (p. 5)
• “Above all, for the commercial promise of big data to be delivered, it relies on trust. Without this trust in place, organisations face a pushback from both consumers and regulators.” (p. 10)
• “A failure to appreciate this changing relationship risks a political and regulatory environment that limits opportunities for almost any kind of online data collection and analysis, with knock-on effects for market researchers.” (p. 10)

Describe in your own words what point the authors are trying to make.