Sometimes I get emails that I have to wonder what the sender was thinking. For example, I got something from someone who calls himself John. John says he is a student at the University of Michigan and wants some help on a project he is working on. What he wants from me is the following information:
- What is your full name?
- What is your email (I will keep this private)?
- What is the name of your blog?
- What is the URL of your blog?
- What is your date of birth?
- Are you Male or Female?
- Would you characterize yourself politically as a Democrat
- (Liberal), Republican (Conservative), Independent, or Other?
- If Other, would you please provide details?
- Are you the only author of your blog?
- If not, are you the primary author? About what percent do you contribute? What is the makeup of your blog's other authors?
Now, maybe John is who he says he is and maybe he isn't. But if a stranger came up to me and started asking me these questions I would walk away at question number one.
But, for a minute, let's suspend reality and say he is who he says he is.
How did he get my email address? If he were for real, he probably would have come to my site and got it from the link I have on the right side of the page. If so, he would know my full name because it across the banner at the top of this page. Indeed, since he has already sent me an email, to ask me question number two (what is my email address) seems curious. In fact, if he has come to my site questions three and four are also strange. All of which leads me to disbelieve John.
In today's environment of epidemic identity theft, question five is none of his business. If he wants to give ranges of ages (e.g., 20 to 29, 30 to 39, etc.), I might answer that. But my actual birth date? Shirley you jest.
I won't even discuss the other questions. The bottom line is, if this were a sanctioned study of the University of Michigan I would think John would need to get what is known as Informed Consent. In order to do that, you need to lay out, in detail, why you need the information, how you will safeguard it, and specifically what you will do with it in perpetuity. He would also need my signature (digital or otherwise).
And finally, neither his email address nor his website is hosted by the University of Michigan.
As a former social sciences major, an interesting experiment would be to send out different emails to randomly chosen email addresses. The only difference in the emails would be the type of questions asked. For example, one type would be completely innocuous such as what is your favorite color or favorite type of desert. From there, the types would get progressively more personal. It would be interesting to see what type of questions would get the most responses (assuming here an equal number of each type were sent). But I digress.
In order for me to give this type of information I have to trust and believe John is who he says he is and will use the data for the purpose he states. But since I don't trust unsolicited emails, especially ones that ask these types of question, I will not be answering John. If you are out there John, sorry, but I decline to participate.
Aloha!
