Who we are
Our website is https://opusresearch.org.
OPUS helps researchers run studies that use social media data donated by subjects. Subjects must be enrolled in studies approved by an accredited Human Subjects Review Board (HSRB) and must have consented to the use of their social media data for the study.
Our Commitment to Privacy
The OPUS team and The University of Virginia are strongly committed to maintaining the privacy and security of confidential personal information and other highly sensitive data that it collects. Our privacy and public records obligations are governed by applicable Virginia statutes, including, but not limited to, the Virginia Privacy Protection Act of 1976, the Virginia Freedom of Information Act and by any applicable U.S. federal laws.
This study site has implemented stringent protections to safeguard participants’ confidentiality. All communication between project servers and participants’ computers is routed through Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption technology. No subject data will be shared with third parties.
Any information subjects provide on the site will be stored on a secured database. Information collected will be associated with a unique ID and not with the participant’s email address. When data are used for analysis, no personally identifying information will be associated with the data.
The Information OPUS Collects
Subjects enrolled in an OPUS study consent to donate their data from one or more specified social media services to the study. Subjects provide authorization to OPUS through the authorization consent screens (also known as OAuth consent screens) of the service. OPUS does not record the subjects’ logins or passwords for the service.
The kinds of data collected by OPUS depends on how the study is configured by the researcher. It typically includes references to a subject’s posts, likes, comments, and views on a specified platform. Data is stored in a secure HIPAA-approved cloud database.
Our website does not allow comments or posts from readers, nor does it maintain any data about people outside of that collected for HSRB-approved studies.
Where Your Data Is Sent
Access to subject data is restricted to the researchers approved to carry out the research by HSRB. The terms of consent for subjects of a particular study may allow the data to be securely shared with other researchers. Such data sharing, if any, also requires HSRB approval.
The OPUS system includes real-time analytics in order to monitor collection of data and provide feedback to both researchers and subjects. Such analysis is carried out in a secure HIPAA-approved cloud analytics platform.
Use of Cookies
OPUS does not place any cookies on users’ browsers or devices.
What Rights You Have Over Your Data
A subject may decide to terminate participation in a study at any time, which will result in all data collected about the subject permanently erased from the system. To request termination, a subject should contact the researcher in whose study the subject enrolled. If the researcher is not responsive then the subject may contact the OPUS organization.
OPUS 