This chapter begins by reviewing general ethical principles applicable to all surveys, regardless of mode. Most, if not all, ethical principles fall into this category. It then discusses ethical issues that are either peculiar to Internet surveys or especially troublesome with respect to them. Finally, it reports on an experiment designed to investigate one such issue: namely, how different ways of informing respondents about the collection and analysis of paradata generated in the course of completing an online survey would affect their willingness to participate in the (hypothetical) survey.
The particular variations of informing respondents that we chose to test clearly reduced their willingness to participate in the survey described. But this finding is limited by a number of factors. We conclude by recommending continued research on how best to inform respondents about the use and usefulness of paradata, and offer some suggestions for the directions such research might take.