Posted by psych chat on October 30, 2009, at 9:48:46
In reply to Re: ISMHO takes members' privacy very seriously » psych chat, posted by cactus on October 29, 2009, at 17:13:56
"..to break it down then, basically these twitter/facebook links are already breaching this protocol. Is this correct? If so, can legal action can be initiated then?"
I don't believe so. As I said, that code applies mainly for a doctor-patient relationship, but also research. That is also an abbreviated version of their full code. Maybe they have something, or are working on something, that outlines ethics for psychiatrists who run online forums, etc., That is what I had asked them about. However, after reading those ethics, imo, I would say that what Dr. Bob is doing CLEARLY is in contrast to their general philosophies concerning patient confidentially ethics.
I do believe, however, the lack of security here could possibly compromise his research facilitated via this site. Without the layer of protection most forums use, all of our posts can be easily found on google. So-when he uses an example of us in research, anyone can google and find that persons statement immmediately in this forum-and see their logon id and other posts that may contain more identifiable information. Then they can google their logon id, and see personal, identifiable information and be able to easily identify this person on another site. That's another reason why I think Dr. Bob should apply reasonable security protection in connection with this site.
And those icons allow you to link your comment to your facebook/twitter accounts. Most facebook accounts identify the individual. How can he use this site for 'anonymous' research under the APA standards - while at the same time, giving people tools to link that same research material to that person's real identiy?
If Dr. Bob wanted to, and as several other mental health forums have done, he could apply reasonable protections to ensure our confidentiality. Those protections would be the simple things I had already stated.
> Why not take it to the papers...">That would be a circus.
poster:psych chat
thread:923225
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/admin/20090813/msgs/923501.html