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The Newcastle Electronic Corpus of Tyneside English (NECTE). and the ethical and legal consequences. of linguistic archaeology. AHRB project code: RE11776. NECTE aims and objectives.
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The Newcastle Electronic Corpus of Tyneside English (NECTE) and the ethical and legal consequences of linguistic archaeology • AHRB project code: RE11776
NECTE aims and objectives • To preserve, archive, and digitize audio recordings of Tyneside English dialect interviews conducted in 1969 and 1994. • To align these digitized audio interviews with their orthographic transcriptions. • To make these aligned files available to researchers (both scholars and authorized laypersons) on the web.
The Data Protection Act (DPA) of 1998 • Purpose • Who must comply? • Types of data affected
DPA: Purpose “An Act to make new provision for the regulation of the processing of information relating to individuals, including the obtaining, holding, use, or disclosure of such information.” --16 July 1998
DPA: Who must comply? “data controllers” and their “data processors”
Banking services, police, employers, marketers, medical personnel, academic researchers who use “human data subjects” Academic: Data controllers: Principal and co-principal investigators of grants. Data processors: data managers, data handlers, data “miners”, research assistants. Data controllers and data processors: Examples
DPA: Types of data affected “personal data”, i.e.: “data which relate to a living individual who can be identified from those data”
Informed consent • Pre-1984 data: Can consent be established? • Implied consent • Last resort: tracing participants
Establishing consent TYNESIDE LINGUISTIC SURVEY Most people who live on Tyneside take a pride in the local dialect[...]That is what this enquiry is concerned with[...] I shall call on you in the near future. I should be very grateful if you and the other members of your household would each give me about ten minutes of your time. I should like you to talk and to answer a few questions. The results of the survey will in due course be published, but no resident who has helped by talking in this way will be referred to in such a way that they could be identified. Barbara Strang, Professor of English Language & General Linguistics The University, Newcastle upon Tyne
Implied consent TLS/G54 .. Well, I—I’m-- I'm against both sides, tell you the truth. Interviewer: Aye. TLS/G54 I- I'll tell you the truth, they can please theirself if they hear it or not, whoever hears the tape recorder it doesn’t worry me at all. I always speak my mind.
Problems using data that pre-exist DPA 1998 • Digitization (change in storage mode) • Security and privacy (change in accessibility of data) • Readily identifiable data subjects? • Sensitive subject matter (interview content) and personal data
Sensitive subject matter (interview content):Examples • Addresses (home, school) • State of health • Voting preference
Example 1: Addresses Interviewer: Could you tell us first of all, where you were born please? To start at the beginning. TLS/G11Gateshead. Interviewer: Whereabouts please? TLS/G11Here in Valley Drive… Interviewer: Here. TLS/G11a Low Fell. … Interviewer: where did you go to school? TLS/G11 I went to Central High first, and then Westfield in Kenton.
Example 2: State of health TLS/G12 How I like to spend my-- Spend my spare time shopping. Interviewer: Yes? TLS/G12 I don’t do anything apart from that, because I haven’t got the best of health. … TLS/G52 well with Jimmy not having any mother... but never mind. The drink got him. It-- it-- it-- it ruined him.
Voting preferences • Voter party registration • Voting patterns • Voting frequency
Example 3: Voting preferences Voter party registration Voting patterns Voting frequency Interviewer: Em this is eh another question you don’t have to answer if you don’t want, because some people don’t. Eh which way do you vote? TLS/G211a: Labour. … Interviewer: Yes. Eh have you always voted the same way? TLS/G211: Uh huh. … Interviewer: Yes. And do you eh—do you always bother to vote, you know in-- in general and local—local elections?TLS/G211: Oh yes.
Problems particular to archived sound files • (Digital) Can be saved onto computer (permanent storage, easily transferable to non-authorized users) • Potential for subject identifiability
Solutions • Anonymised data • Access to i.d. files (internal only) • Access to sound files and social data (password-protection and carefully screened users) • Storage of original audio data • Compliance statement
Options • University technology transfer office • University legal team • University data protection officer
Data protection officerCompliance statement: Steps • Draft report • Meet with university’s data protection officer • Notification and registration of data with the Information Commissioner
Data protection and protection of data • DPA requires protection against destruction of personal data • ‘Traditional’ media (audio tape, print, etc.) subject to deterioration • Digitization provides additional backup of data