People seeking anonymity in online discussion groups on topics ranging from marriage to disease to sexual identity crises may become research subjects without their knowledge or consent. In some cases, researchers are posing as support group members, posting comments and observing the reactions of participants.

In more extreme cases, support-group members have found their privacy violated by researchers. One cancer victim who hadn't told his family, friends or co-workers about his diagnosis found his full name and condition posted online, the Associated Press reports.

Because of the growing number of such cases, researchers around the world are grappling with the question of when, how and where the line should be drawn between public and private information on the Internet. Amy Bruckman, a professor of computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology, says discussion group participants join assuming their fellow members have similar concerns and interests, and that makes discussion forums more like a private group in someone’s living room than a public forum, AP reports.

Sarina Chen, professor of communications at the University of Northern Iowa, says researchers who view downloading such data from the Internet as simply "content analysis" are taking a naive point of view -- and could face legal action.

Chen says researchers who don't get consent before monitoring chat room discussions or other online forums are invading people’s privacy and affecting the way participants may approach each other -– or other groups -- in the future.

Some researchers disagree with Chen and Bruckman, however. Many say monitoring chat room discussions without consent is legitimate, as long as the subjects are not specifically identified in research papers.

"It’s more important how data is analyzed and disseminated than how it is gathered," Joseph Walther, a professor of communications, psychology and information technology at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, told the news agency.

This stance, however, has made many researchers uneasy because it could lead to governmental restrictions or other curbs. Also, university boards and federal law tend to prohibit experiments on humans without consent, the AP reports.

A new organization, the Association of Internet Researchers, is expected to form a task force to draft online research guidelines by the time it reconvenes in 2001.

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