In this paper the need of awareness for and even of change in the rules of how we conduct ourselves as researchers and participants in the virtual worlds of the internet is proposed. The focus of this paper is on the ethics for online research. Our aim is to reignite the discussion about the way the availability and consequent (mis)use of ‘social’ data, e.g. social network site profiles or newsgroup postings by researchers is about to necessitate a new definition of and fight for the right for a private sphere that each individual may claim in the public of the virtual worlds. We conclude with an approach on how to accomplish that.

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