HOW TO: do secondary research for a case

[samanthaburton]

Thanks so much for your interest in contributing to Whose Data?
If you haven't read the Contributor Guidelines yet, please have a look before diving in.

How to do secondary research for Whose Data?

A company or organization that Whose Data? is researching is called a ‘case’.

Whose Data is working to answer two questions about each case:

• Do I legally own the data this org has about me?
• Can I see all the data they have about me, for free?

For more information on our research goals, check out this overview.

Helping to verify an open case involves doing desk/online research and/or contacting organizations. If you're new to the project, this is a great way to start contributing!

How to do secondary research for Whose Data?

The goal of secondary research is to find and document publicly available information that answers the two questions above.

A lot of the info we're looking for is out there -- it's just buried deep in websites or confusing language. Whose Data? makes this information to find and understand by putting it in plain language, and in one place.

How to do secondary research

1. Look at the list of cases that need more secondary research and choose one to work on -- OR open a new case.

2. Research online to find more answers to the question(s) that need more information.
   Good places to start: the organization's website, Terms of Service or Privacy Policy. An internet search for the organization name + "privacy" or "data" often works too!

3. Add information the information you find:

• Click the edit button on the case you've chosen
• Add the information, using Markdown for formatting. Here's a great Markdown cheatsheet.
• Click 'Preview Changes' if you want to see what you additions will look like
• When you're done, scroll to the bottom and under Commit Changes write a short note about what you changed/added, make sure 'create a new branch' is selected, and click the green 'Commit Changes' button!
• This will create a pull request in Github, asking me to review and approve the changes. Once this happens, the article will be updated with the info you added!

Questions or comments?

Please add them below!