Social media data are being increasingly used in conservation science to study human–nature interactions. User‐generated content, such as images, video, text, and audio, and the associated metadata can be used to assess such interactions. A number of social media platforms provide free access to user‐generated social media content. However, similar to any research involving people, scientific investigations based on social media data require compliance with highest standards of data privacy and data protection, even when data are publicly available. Should social media data be misused, the risks to individual users' privacy and well‐being can be substantial. We investigated the legal basis for using social media data while ensuring data subjects’ rights through a case study based on the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation. The risks associated with using social media data in research include accidental and purposeful misidentification that has the potential to cause psychological or physical harm to an identified person. To collect, store, protect, share, and manage social media data in a way that prevents potential risks to users involved, one should minimize data, anonymize data, and follow strict data management procedure. Risk‐based approaches, such as a data privacy impact assessment, can be used to identify and minimize privacy risks to social media users, to demonstrate accountability and to comply with data protection legislation. We recommend that conservation scientists carefully consider our recommendations in devising their research objectives so as to facilitate responsible use of social media data in conservation science research, for example, in conservation culturomics and investigations of illegal wildlife trade online.

中文翻译：

---

在保护科学中使用社交媒体数据时，如何解决数据隐私问题

在保护科学中，越来越多地使用社交媒体数据来研究人与自然的相互作用。用户生成的内容（例如图像，视频，文本和音频）以及关联的元数据可用于评估此类交互。许多社交媒体平台提供对用户生成的社交媒体内容的免费访问。但是，与任何涉及人的研究相似，基于社交媒体数据的科学研究也需要遵守最高的数据隐私和数据保护标准，即使数据是公开可用的。如果滥用社交媒体数据，则可能会对个人用户的隐私和幸福带来巨大的风险。我们通过基于欧盟《通用数据保护条例》的案例研究，调查了在使用社交媒体数据同时确保数据主体权利的法律基础。与在研究中使用社交媒体数据相关的风险包括偶然和有目的的错误识别，有可能对被识别人员造成心理或身体伤害。为了以防止对相关用户造成潜在风险的方式收集，存储，保护，共享和管理社交媒体数据，应将数据最小化，匿名化数据并遵循严格的数据管理程序。基于风险的方法（例如数据隐私影响评估）可用于识别社交媒体用户的隐私风险并将其最小化，证明责任并遵守数据保护法规。我们建议保护科学家在制定研究目标时仔细考虑我们的建议，以促进在保护科学研究中负责任地使用社交媒体数据，例如，