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* The Internet offers social researchers unrivalled access to the minutiae of daily life
* Using data from websites, forums and social networking sites continues a long tradition of unobtrusive methods in social research
* Unobtrusively acquired online data can make otherwise ephemeral aspects of everyday life amenable to research
* Unobtrusive Internet research can reduce the burden placed on those whose behaviour is being researched
* Cautionary notes include the need to establish ethical grounds for accessing online data, and the possibly of various forms of bias shaping the data
Research methods which do not require active participation from those being researched have a respectable, if not always prominent, role in the history of social research. The most notable recent discussion of their potential is Lee's (2000) work on unobtrusive methods. Lee builds on Webb et al (1981) and Kellahear (1993) to explore advantages and ethical and epistemological challenges which these non-reactive approaches offer. In reactive methods such as interviews and surveys, respondents are aware of the researcher and may respond in socially desirable fashion or adapt their behaviour in consciousness of being under scrutiny. Unobtrusive use of "found" data can expose biases in data collected via reactive methods, or allow an otherwise hidden population or practice to be explored.
In his final chapter Lee (2000) explores the opportunity which the Internet offers social researchers interested in analysing "found" data. Since his book was written these opportunities have multiplied as the Internet has become an increasingly mainstream phenomenon (in 70% of UK households in 2009 (Dutton et al. 2010)). More people, and a more diverse range of people, are now online, doing a wider array of things, including participating in discussion forums and building web sites as they were in 2000, but also using social networking sites, uploading their photographs and videos, leaving their opinions via tagging, commenting and reviewing and leaving electronic traces of their actions in logs of server activity, search engine usage and the like. As Savage and Burrows (2007) describe it, this wealth of data on social activity poses a significant alternative (and potential threat) to the traditional techniques social researchers use to collect their data. This paper reviews some recent studies which make use of found Internet data before...