Consent Form to Participate in a Research Study

Title of Research Study: Educating users on technology to improve online safety: Can we boost adoption of safe online security technologies?

Name of Principal Investigator (PI): Julie Thorpe

PI’s contact number(s)/email(s): julie.thorpe@ontariotechu.ca

Names(s) of Co-Investigator(s), Faculty Supervisor, Student Lead(s), etc., and contact number(s)/email(s): Samarth Sudheendra Kulkarni, samarthsudheendra.kulkarni@ontariotechu.net , Liam Edney, liam.edney@ontariotechu.net , Shengqian Wang, shengqian.wang@ontariotechu.net

Departmental and institutional affiliation(s): Faculty of Business and IT

Introduction

You are invited to participate in a research study entitled Educating users on technology to improve online safety: Can we boost adoption of safe online security technologies? You are being asked to take part in a research study. Please read the information about the study presented in this form. The form includes details on the study’s procedures, risks and benefits that you should know before you decide if you would like to take part. You should take as much time as you need to make your decision. You should ask the Principal Investigator (PI) or study team to explain anything that you do not understand and make sure that all of your questions have been answered before signing this consent form. Before you make your decision, feel free to talk about this study with anyone you wish including your friends and family. Participation in this study is voluntary. Spots for this research study are filled on a first come, first served basis.

This study has been reviewed by the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (Ontario Tech University) Research Ethics Board [insert REB assigned #] on [insert date].

Purpose and Procedure:

Purpose:

• You have been invited to participate in this study because your participation can help us increase awareness, knowledge, and possibly adoption of technology to improve online safety.

Procedures:

This study has two sessions. The first session will take about 10 minutes and you will be compensated up to: [Prolific $1.90USD] [Amazon Mechanical Turk and CloudResearch $1.20 USD] upon completion of our study and survey. You may also choose to return for a short (2-3 minute) second session anytime within a week after you complete the first session and will be compensated up to [Prolific $0.50 USD] [Amazon Mechanical Turk and CloudResearch $0.40 USD] for doing so. The tasks for this first session of the study are as follows:

- Pre-screen: Completing the pre-study demographic questionnaire, after which you may continue in our study if there is space in your demographic pool. Please note that if your pool is closed, you will be notified if it reopens. (approx. 1 minute)

- Task 1: You may be shown a 3-5 minute-long educational video about technology to improve online safety. You will be asked to create an account on our test website (approx. 1 minute).[AmazonMturk and CloudResearch $ 0.60 USD] [Prolific $0.90 USD].

- Task 2: Once an account is created, you will be asked to login (approx. 30 seconds). Please note that this website will not store any of your personal information, not even your email address. [Amazon Mturk and CloudResearch $ 0.15 USD] [Prolific $0.20 USD].

- Task 3: You will be asked to complete an implicit learning task, where you will be shown some 2D arrangements of L’s and T’s and asked to find the T and click on it. (approx. 30 seconds). [AmazonMturk and CloudResearch $ 0.15 USD] [Prolific $0.20 USD].

- Task 4: You will be brought to our post-study questionnaire, which briefly includes feedback on the usability of our system, as well as other feedback to improve online safety. (approx. 2 minutes).[Amazon Mturk and CloudResearch $ 0.30 USD] [Prolific $0.60 USD].

The tasks for Session 2 are:

- Task 1: Those who successfully completed these steps will be automatically invited back at any time one to seven days after the study to login to our custom website again (approx. 1 minute) [Amazon Mturk and CloudResearch $ 0.15 USD] [Prolific $0.20 USD].

- Task 2: Final questionnaire. (approx. 1-2 min.) [Amazon Mturk and CloudResearch $ 0.25 USD] [Prolific $0.30 USD].

- There are approximately 400-800 participants in this study.

- We will collect demographic data, questionnaire responses, and we will record all your inputs to our website. All data will be anonymized.

Potential Benefits:

You may gain knowledge on how to make your accounts more secure. You will also be contributing to helping us determine how we should be educating and nudging people about technology to improve online safety.

Potential Risk or Discomforts:

• There are no known or anticipated risks to you from participating in this study.

Use and Storage of Data:

The data includes demographic information and feedback (i.e., gender, age, and education level). All the data will be anonymized by using anonymized IDs that our system will store, the data doesn’t include any personal, confidential, or valuable information. Data will only be accessible by the researchers and will be stored indefinitely in encrypted format.

All information collected during this study, including your personal information, will be kept confidential and will not be shared with anyone outside the study unless required by law. You will not be named in any reports, publications, or presentations that may come from this study.

There is the potential to use data for a secondary research purpose; your consent for this will be asked in an optional section at the end of this form.

Confidentiality:

This section must include the follow statements and information:

• Your [MTurk, Prolific, CloudResearch] ID will be kept confidential. Collected data will be anonymized and it will not include any information that reveals your identity. Please note that to keep your privacy, your username/email address or crowdsourcing ID will not be stored in our database.


• Your privacy shall be respected. No information about your identity will be shared or published without your permission, unless required by law. Confidentiality will be provided to the fullest extent possible by law, professional practice, and ethical codes of conduct. Please note that confidentiality cannot be guaranteed while data is in transit over the Internet.


• This research study includes the collection of demographic data which will be aggregated (not individually presented) in an effort to protect your anonymity. Despite best efforts it is possible that your identity can be determined even when data is aggregated.

Voluntary Participation:

• Your participation in this study is voluntary and you may partake in only those aspects of the study in which you feel comfortable. You may also decide not to be in this study, or to be in the study now, and then change your mind later. You may leave the study at any time without affecting your relationship with the institution. You will be given information that is relevant to your decision to continue or withdraw from participation. Such information will need to be subsequently provided.


• You may refuse to answer any question you do not want to answer, or not answer an interview question.

Right to Withdraw:

• Participants can choose to withdraw during the study by pressing the “withdraw” button available on each page. This button will also provide a completion code that allows for partial compensation based on their task progression according to our payment schedule.


• If you withdraw from the research project at any time, any data that you have contributed will be removed from the study and you do not need to offer any reason for making this request.


• All participants will only be able to withdraw until the data has been anonymized (upon completion of the study).


• During the study, there will be a “withdraw” button available on every page of the website, including a final option to withdraw from the study at the end. Exiting the page does not count as withdrawing from the study, if you exit the page you are welcome to re-start your session on the website to continue the study.

Compensation, Reimbursement, Incentives:

• You will be eligible for compensation based on the following schedule:


• Pre-screen: Pre Study Screening/ Demographic questionnaire.


• Task 1: Groups 1 and 2 will watch our educational video about technology to improve online safety and online safety, group 3 and the control group will immediately be brought to the account creation task. Approx. 1-7 minutes.[Prolific $0.90 USD Amazon Mturk and CloudResearch $0.60USD].


• Task 2: Account login [Prolific $0.20 USD Amazon Mturk and CloudResearch $0.15 USD]


• Task 3: Implicit learning task [Prolific $0.20 USD Amazon Mturk and CloudResearch $0.15 USD]


• Task 4: Post-study questionnaire [Prolific $0.60 USD Amazon Mturk and CloudResearch $0.30 USD].

Session 2 Tasks:

• Task 1: Second login anytime within seven days after the study [Prolific $0.20 USD Amazon Mturk and CloudResearch $0.15 USD].


• Task 2: Final questionnaire [Prolific $0.30 USD Amazon Mturk and CloudResearch $0.25 USD].


• Once you are eligible for any of the above partial compensation, you can receive a completion code for the compensation amount by clicking the “withdraw” button available on each page of the website.

Debriefing and Dissemination of Results:

If you are interested in learning of the results, please contact Liam Edney at liam.edney@ontariotechu.net.

Participant Rights and Concerns:

• Please read this consent form carefully and feel free to ask the researcher any questions that you might have about the study. If you have any questions about your rights as a participant in this study, complaints, or adverse events, please contact the Research Ethics Office at (905) 721-8668 ext. 3693 or at researchethics@ontariotechu.ca .


• If you have any questions concerning the research study or experience any discomfort related to the study, please contact the researcher Samarth Sudheendra Kulkarni at samarthsudheendra.kulkarni@ontariotechu.net . Please note that communication via e-mail is not absolutely secure. Thus, please do not communicate personal sensitive information via e-mail.


• By signing this form you do not give up any of your legal rights against the investigators, sponsor or involved institutions for compensation, nor does this form relieve the investigators, sponsor or involved institutions of their legal and professional responsibilities.

Consent to Participate:

1. I have read the consent form and understand the study being described.


2. I have had an opportunity to ask questions and my questions have been answered. I am free to ask questions about the study in the future.


3. I freely consent to participate in the research study, understanding that I may discontinue participation at any time without penalty. A copy of this Consent Form has been made available to me.



I agree

Secondary Use of Research for Future Research Purposes

1. I understand the possible need for secondary research uses of my research data for future research use and provide consent for the use of my data to be used in future studies.


2. The research team has informed me that a separate REB application will be submitted for the secondary use of data for any future research purposes.



I agree