You are being invited to participate in a research study titled MicroMobile.  This study is being done by Prof. Mark Corner from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.  You were selected to participate in this study because you responded to one of our ads or flyers.

The purpose of this research study is to study new, and more efficient ways to collect data using mobile devices. Mobile devices contain a number of sensors, like accelerometers, gyrometers, cameras, thermometers, light sensors, and sometimes even humidity sensors.  We want to figure out the best ways of getting highly diverse sets of users to participate in these data gathering experiments.  Some things we are testing include mobile apps, mobile websites, advertisements in other mobile apps, and flyers.

If you agree to take part in this study, you will be asked to complete a short survey and provide a small amount of data from one of the sensors on your mobile device.  This survey/questionnaire will ask you to answer zero, or a few, questions about demographics (age, gender, etc), what situation you are currently in (at work, at home, studying, exercising, etc.) and to provide a small amount of sensor information from your device, such as accelerometer readings, temperature, the state of your device’s battery, or impersonal photos from your surroundings.  This experiment is designed to be very short, taking less than one minute to complete.

We may also contact you again, either through notifications on your mobile device (after agreeing to), or through repeat advertisements shown on your mobile device.  You can turn off these notifications in your mobile device’s settings at any time.

You may not directly benefit from this research; however, we hope that your participation in the study may lead to developing the best techniques for gathering data from distributed mobile devices, such as phones and tablets.  We will be able to design better experiments to collect sensor information from a highly diverse set of people.

We believe there are no known risks associated with this research study; however, as with any online related activity the risk of a breach of confidentiality is always possible.  To the best of our ability your answers in this study will remain confidential.  We will minimize any risks by storing any data that you share with us in a secure database protected by industry standard mechanisms, including passwords, encryption, and firewalls.

Your participation in this study is completely voluntary and you can withdraw at any time.  You are free to skip any question that you choose or close the app, website, or advertisement.

If you have questions about this project or if you have a research-related problem, you may contact the researcher, Prof. Mark Corner at mcorner@cs.umass.edu.   If you have any questions concerning your rights as a research subject, you may contact the University of Massachusetts Amherst Human Research Protection Office (HRPO) at (413) 545-3428 or humansubjects@ora.umass.edu.

By clicking  on “agree” in the app, website or advertisement, you are indicating that you are at least 18 years old, have read and understood this consent form and agree to participate in this research study.  Please print a copy of this page for your records.