Suppose that you are afforded an opportunity to examine data that was, on the surface at least, collected legally and ethically, but that may contain hidden ethical dilemmas. What precautions, if any, should you take when working with this data?
Two examples that came to mind for me were data collected from a social media site and DNA/genetic data obtained by a genomics company that is supposed to trace your genetic ancestry. These data sources are covered by a consent waiver that gives the service provider certain permissions to use, distribute, and monetize your data. To use those services, a patron is required to sign a waiver/terms of use agreement. A person's data is only collected with their "consent," albeit at times a blind consent.
If I was a geneticist, suppose, and obtained via appropriate means genetic data for a population of interest that had submitted their saliva/DNA to one of these genomics companies, what would be some ethical issues I would need to consider? The subject consented to giving their data, but many times did not necessarily give informed consent. In this example, could it still be unethical to do research on data that was likely obtained from people who just quickly passed through the consent agreements and signed blindly?
This issue is even more relevant in cases of social media data. Most users likely had no idea their data was even being collected because the did not read the user agreement they consented to. Would it be unethical to then use data collected from this social media site, even though it was legally obtained?