Protecting student privacy in online projects
User privacy is also an important consideration when requiring students to participate in online activities. The majority of the participatory science projects used in this class (Table 1 ) allow for anonymous reporting. Even when the project posts maps or visualizations of observations, the user who submitted the data is not always reported (e.g., GLOBE Cloud Observer). Even projects that report the observer’s name allow for users to use a screen name that need not be their legal name and report no other identifying information (e.g., Debris Tracker and iNaturalist). The most robust privacy measures, illustrated by iNaturalist, allow users to obscure the geolocation of their observation, which is particularly important when students are primarily making observations in or near their home. Additionally, the option of summarizing or analyzing other user’s data could be used as an option for students uncomfortable with the required online presence of participatory science projects. Indeed, research has shown that engaging with the broader dataset in which their individual observations are ‘nested’ has a positive impact on student valuation of participating in such projects and on students’ perception of themselves as agents of environmental change (Harris et al 2020).