Emerging Legal Issues for Transportation Researchers Using Passively Collected Data Sets: Researcher Interview Responses (TTI-03-01)

Project Description: The data for this project was collected from May 2018-Spetember 2018. Using a structured discussion guide, project team members in Texas conducted phone and in-person interviews transportation researchers in different parts of the US and Canada. The research question was: what are the legal implications for transportation researchers using secondary, passively collected data sources. The purpose for the semi-structured discussions was to identify the current state of knowledge and practice around data protection, as well as emerging questions from the actual or anticipated experience of working with existing, passively collected data sets. With the advent of new technologies used to gather and process data, large data sets are being collected which are of interest to transportation researchers. However, legal and ethical questions around data ownership and protection in the context of emerging technologies, especially with regard to emerging automated and connected vehicle technologies, are still being formulated and addressed but not settled. This research compares the uses of primary and secondary, passively collected data sources to identify legal considerations affecting access to these data for transportation researchers. With privately sourced data becoming more prevalent, researchers are faced with additional duties and changing practices. This exploratory research aims to provide guidance to transportation researchers on the legal and ethical requirements for data protection. Data Scope: Using an interview guide, the project team spoke with 10 public university transportation researchers, one research project manager who worked for an automaker, and one government official. Researchers were chosen based on their experience working with human subjects or commercially collected data. Though some had extensive experience working with existing data, most were more familiar with the processes of collecting primary data with Institutional Review Board oversight. These discussions also suggested the need to develop use cases to demonstrate the various data acquisition models that researchers are now engaged in. The discussion identified the changes that researchers have noted in their practice related to data acquisition and protection, and what they may need to know going forward. Some of the topics covered in the interview guide included: Types of transportation data used and the collection methods, with a focus on human subjects data Policies and procedures for data and privacy protection Engagement with legal requirements for data collection and use Current and emerging challenges in using transportation data, however owned, collected or acquired Data Specification: The data set is a summary compilation of interviews conducted with 12 researchers including: 10 public university transportation researchers, one research project manager who worked for an automaker, and one government official. The interviews were conducted using a discussion guide designed to capture answers from several perspectives, depending on the researcher’s experience. For this reason researchers may not have answered every question, or might have answered more than one question in a single response. Therefore responses were grouped in categories of topic, rather than by direct responses to single questions.