The Handbook of Mobile Market Research: Tools and Techniques for Market Researchers

16 Ethics, Laws, and Guidelines

INTRODUCTION

Ethics are a central tenet of market research, and most chapters in this book have touched on ethics, along with rules, laws, and guidelines, and the need to gain informed consent. The core issues relating to mobile market research ethics are similar to the issues for other forms of market research. However, there are specific considerations that are either unique to mobile market research or have different characteristics in a mobile context, and these are the issues reviewed in this chapter.

Specific topics covered include key stakeholders in terms of privacy and ethics, the interplay of laws, guidelines, and ethics, and how to conduct ethical mobile market research. The chapter finishes with a checklist of the key questions that should be addressed.

KEY STAKEHOLDERS IN TERMS OF PRIVACY AND ETHICS

The key stakeholders in most forms of market research are:

• Research participants
• Research agencies and their employees
• Research clients and users
• The market research profession, including the bodies that represent it
• Legislators and regulators.

When conducting mobile market research there are additional groups of people who may need to be considered, for example:

• People who might be recorded by the participants in mobile research studies. For example, people who might be photographed or videoed during a mobile ethnography project.
• People whose digital details may be accidently or unintentionally collected by the researcher. For example ...