CONSENT DOCUMENT FOR ENROLLING ADULT PARTICIPANTS IN A RESEARCH STUDY

Georgia Institute of Technology, Project Title: courteous.ly

Investigators: Eric Gilbert, Ph.D.

Protocol and Consent Title: H11133

You are being asked to be a volunteer in a research study.

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to understand if exposing hidden aspects of social media makes the media better. We also want to investigate whether courteous.ly makes an impact on the overall amount of email participants receive. We will enroll as many people as come to our site in this study.

In addition to providing a useful tool, we also may contact participants for future email studies. Whether you choose to participate in a future study is up to you at that time. By default, you will be opted out of future studies. Your future decision will not affect your use of courteous.ly now.

Exclusion/Inclusion Criteria

Participants in this study must have a Gmail account and must be 18 years or older to participate.

Procedures

If you choose to give courteous.ly access to your Gmail account, the application will compute a measure of your email load. It does this by counting the number of messages in your email folders. The values for your email load can only be "light," "normal," or "high." courteous.ly will generate a unique url for you to put in your email signature. The intent of the custom url is for your email contacts to be able to see your real-time email load. The sign-up and configuration process should take you about 10 minutes.

Risks or Discomforts

The risks involved are no greater than those involved in daily internet activities, especially risks involved in using social media applications on the internet.

Benefits

You may benefit by letting people see your real-time email load.

Compensation to You

You will not be compensated for this study.

Confidentiality

• The following procedures will be followed to keep your personal information confidential in this study: The data collected about you will be kept private to the extent allowed by law.
• Your records will be kept in locked files and only study staff will be allowed to look at them. Your name and any other fact that might point to you will not appear when results of this study are presented or published.
• courteous.ly does not store your Google password. In fact, it never sees it. courteous.ly does, however, keep a token Google provides. This token gives the service access to your email account. courteous.ly uses this token to log in and do its work. It can be revoked easily at any time. See the "Participant Rights" section for a link where you can do this. While courteous.ly takes every precaution in storing and accessing this token (i.e., encrypting the token everywhere), if someone gained access to it, they could do nasty things to your account (e.g., delete your email). courteous.ly has taken industry-leading steps to minimize this possibility.
• While you use courteous.ly, our database will contain your email address and tokens which allow access to your email account. During this time, it is possible that a subpoena may force us to reveal this information to authorities.
• To make sure that this research is being carried out in the proper way, the Georgia Institute of Technology IRB may review study records. The Office of Human Research Protections may also look over study records during required reviews.
• You should be aware that the backend of this experiment is being run from a 'secure' https server of the kind typically used to handle credit card transactions. This should mitigate the risk that unauthorized third parties sees your data.

Costs to You

There are no costs to you associated with this study.

In Case of Injury/Harm

If you are injured as a result of being in this study, please contact Eric Gilbert, Ph.D., at telephone (404) 894-3146. Neither the Principal Investigator nor Georgia Institute of Technology has made provision for payment of costs associated with any injury resulting from participation in this study.

Participant Rights

• Your participation in this study is voluntary. You do not have to be in this study if you don't want to be.
• You have the right to change your mind and leave the study at any time without giving any reason and without penalty. To do so, quit through courteous.ly or revoke access through your Google account.
• Any new information that may make you change your mind about being in this study will be given to you.
• This url is your copy of the consent form to keep. As long as courteous.ly is up, this consent form will be here.
• You do not waive any of your legal rights by consenting.

Questions about the Study

If you have any questions about the study, you may contact Dr. Eric Gilbert at telephone (404) 894-3146 or gilbert@cc.gatech.edu.

Questions about Your Rights as a Research Participant

If you have any questions about your rights, you may contact



Ms. Melanie Clark, Georgia Institute of Technology

Office of Research Compliance, at (404) 894-6942.

or

Ms. Kelly Winn, Georgia Institute of Technology

Office of Research Compliance, at (404) 385- 2175.

By giving courteous.ly access to your Gmail account, you indicate your consent to be in the study.