For Researchers

In November 2022, the NIO went into the field with its browser extension, and we have since collected browsing data from approximately 10,000 total participants. Data collection is ongoing and we currently have an active panel of 2,000-3,000 participants. The participants have agreed for their data to be provided for analytic access to scientific researchers, within a privacy-preserving framework.

We now invite interested academic researchers to submit proposals for studies on this data. Below we describe our available data products. We will release new products regularly, including: mobile app usage, social media usage, and news consumption. Please sign up for our waitlist to be notified when those products are released.

Generative AI Chatbots Data Product

The Generative AI Chatbot data product provides researchers with participants’ chat history with the two most-used chat-based services - ChatGPT and Google Gemini. This includes the prompts by users and responses by the chatbots, but not the artifacts created like computer code, documents, or images.

Search Data Product

The Search Data Product is made up of two different data products – Google and Bing search. Each search product provides data on what users are searching for, the search results, AI summaries of results, in-search advertisements, and other search page features.

Web Browsing Data Product

The Web Browsing (a.k.a. Time On Page) data product provides researchers with information about the web pages visited by members of the NIO participant pool, specifically the amount of time they spent on each page before visiting a new page or URL. These data, in turn, can be linked to the demographics of the participants.

Eligibility

Eligible researchers must be from an academic research institution. Applicants will need to:

1. Take our self-guided ethics training
2. Providing certification of human subjects training
3. Fill out a research intake form (similar to an IRB intake form)
4. Have their institutions sign a data use agreement
5. Sign a plain-language code of conduct that mirrors the data use agreement

We note that, due to the sensitivity of the data, access to all data will be via a secure data enclave, utilizing Northeastern computational resources.

How to Apply

If you are interested in applying for access, please complete Our Interest Form and we will send you a description of the relevant application materials. If you have any questions, please email us at researchers@nationalinternetobservatory.org.

Applications are currently being reviewed on a rolling basis.