SMERF: Social Media, Ethics and Risk Framework

SMERF is a proposed framework to support researchers and investigators in risk assessment when working with Social Media (SM). The aim of SMERF is to mitigate risk, by identifying it a priori. Risk assessment is considered where there is a potential danger involved in undertaking SM-related projects, which may include Digital Investigations and undergraduate or postgraduate projects. The vulnerbilities of the researcher or investigator that conduct SM-related work is discussed and what types of threats they may be exposed to are described. These are related to current counter-terrorim laws, data protection regulations and acceptable use policies. SMERF is proposed to mitigate risks that the investigator or researcher and their associated organisations maybe exposed to. The development of SMERF is agile and therefore has the ability to adapt to different organisations’ requirements. Finally, a quality assurance and risk assessment life-cycle is proposed and recommendations are for SMERF to be reviewed annually and updated appropriately.