On Tue, May 17, 2016 at 12:52 PM, Dave Crossland <[email protected]> wrote: > > Hi > > Thanks for the lengthy explanation :) I think I understand your position > better now :) > > On 17 May 2016 at 12:14, Chris Leonard <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> >> any form of human subjects research > > > Is https://activities.sugarlabs.org/en-US/statistics/ "human subjects > research"?
In the legal sense, it is whatever a court of competent jurisdiction determines it to be. In general, our basic web-stats do not appear to have the characteristics one typically associates with human subjects research, some characteristics, like aggregation, anonymization, etc. are in fact steps taken to deliberately place certain research activities outside of the scope of human subjects protections (like requirements for institutional review board approval, etc.). If you start drilling down to collecting IP numbers (say for geo-location) and other bits of data that *might* be mapped (alone or in combination with any other information sitting around) to the identifiable user level, you are getting into much deeper water. Even if you can figure out a way to accomplish your goals in compliance with the law, you should also ask yourself 'How would this look from the point of view of the fairly stringent privacy expectations held by the people that Sugar Labs aligns itself in the world of FOSS". While generally not a matter of legal consequence, we do operate in an ecosystem where we are very dependent of people and organizations who take a dim view of anything that could be construed as "snooping", and that should probably be taken into account. >> >> One should never read the CFR and >> make a determination that it "does not apply to me" without consulting >> with a lawyer. That way lies madness as well as potential fines and >> imprisonment. > > > Has anyone involved with Sugar Labs consulted with any lawyers on any legal > topics? > > As a Sugar Labs Member, how do I consult with a lawyer? In general, the same way any one else would, a) get the yellow pages b) turn to the "L" section, then back to the "A" section because lawyers are listed as attorneys. . . etc., etc. You seem to be proposing a personal activity, not one undertaken collectively by the corporate Sugar Labs entity, so knock yourself out and be careful, lawyers are expensive, but in some cases not as expensive as not having one. Our fiscal sponsorship agreement with the SFC provides for some specific cases where the SFC might provide legal assistance, but I'm not really sure if this is one of them. You could ask the SLOB to communicate on your behalf with the SFC to see if this is an area where they can provide any advice. cjl _______________________________________________ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) [email protected] http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
