Commentary on ‘Protecting User Privacy and Rights in Academic Data-Sharing Partnerships: Principles From a Pilot Program at Crisis Text Line'”

This commentary is unconventional because I am not an academic peer with the authors, and I am not a credentialed practitioner in the field of mental health. Instead, as a former volunteer for the nonprofit Crisis Text Line, Inc., I am a human subject of study. My words and the words of those I conversed with are in the data being shared.

The paper discusses a range of issues for sharing sensitive data for research purposes. Here, I focus on two: consent for research, and safeguards against commercial use. I provide facts and invite reconsideration of the paper’s treatment of consent and data safeguards (sharing, use, and commercialization) under the lens of potential bias and exploitation.

“Bias is any trend or deviation from the truth in data collection, data analysis, interpretation and publication which can cause false conclusions. Bias can occur either intentionally or unintentionally”. I invite others to decide for themselves about the potential direction, intention, and influence of bias based on the facts presented here...