  urlLink Some Ethical Considerations and Resources for Analyzing Online Discussions. ERIC Digest. This ERIC Digest is by Sarah Brem. It looks at how ethics need to be considered when viewing online discussions.
From the ERIC Digest: Online discussions can be a valuable source of information for researchers and educators studying the interactions of a community of interest (Klinger, 2000), looking for ways to improve interactions within a working group (Ahuja & Carley,1998), or assessing student learning (Brem, Russell, & Weems,2001). Discussion forums frequently offer automated tracking services, such as a transcript or an archive, that allow detailed analyses of conversations that may have taken place months or even years ago. While online discussions present new opportunities to teachers, policymakers, and researchers, their analysis also presents new concerns and considerations. This Digest introduces ethical considerations related to acquiring and analyzing online data and provides resources to support sound practice. 
