FAQs
What is the Australian Internet Observatory?
The Australian Internet Observatory (AIO) is a national research infrastructure project designed to support the collection and analysis of digital social data across various disciplines. It’s a four-year initiative, established as a co-investment partnership with the Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC). The AIO functions as a shared facility for the Australian research community, providing tools and resources to help researchers understand engagement scenarios and complete research projects.
What kind of data does the Australian Internet Observatory collect?
The Australian Internet Observatory provides tools and resources to support researchers in collecting and analyzing digital social data from various platforms. The data that researchers can collect through AIO tools comes from a range of digital platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Reddit.
What is Data Donation?
Data donation involves participants voluntarily agreeing to share their data with researchers.
What is a data download package (DDP)?
A Data Download Package (DDP) is a collection of personal data that digital platforms provide to users upon request. It allows users to access, save, and review the information platforms have stored about them. DDPs typically include a variety of data types, such as account information, content and activity, connections, messages, advertising data, and activity logs. DDPs are a fundamental data source for the AIO, supporting the collection of data for research projects. They are often provided as ZIP files in formats like JSON, HTML, or CSV.
Why are DDPs valuable for research?
DDPs are valuable for research because they provide a comprehensive collection of personal data that users can access from digital platforms. This allows researchers to study user behaviour, online activity, and the data platforms have collected about them. This includes timestamps, device details, IP addresses, and location data, enabling researchers to reconstruct sequences of actions, calculate durations, and link activities across different data categories.
What does a DDP contain?
- Material created or shared by the user, such as posts, comments, messages, uploads, stories, and saved content.
- User’s interactions with content and other users.
- Account creation details, profile information, username history, settings, device information, and preferences.
- Records of advertisements viewed, clicked, or otherwise interacted with. Many platforms also include the interest categories and targeting parameters used to select advertisements for the user.
- Metadata, including timestamps, device information, IP addresses, location data, security logs, and technical identifiers.
Who will have access to my data?
If you are a participant donating your data, only the researcher(s) who have been given explicit consent will have access to it. If you are a researcher, the data collected from your participants will be visible only to you.
Where is my data stored?
Data is stored in an encrypted, access-controlled environment provided by the AIO via Nectar (ARDC) on Australian servers.
