Privacy

Farmers Datalab: Digital Support for Farmer-Led On-Farm Experimentation
Cornell University

Principal Investigator: Louis Longchamps, Soil and Crop Sciences, SIPS, Cornell University
Contact: LL928@cornell.edu; (607) 255-6041

You are being invited to take part in a research project run by Louis Longchamps and the Farmers Datalab team at Cornell University. We are studying how a digital system can help farmers run their own experiments on their farms and share what they observe. You are being asked because you are a farmer who is running, or planning to run, an experiment on your own farm.

Please read this information before you decide whether to take part. You can ask us questions at any time.

Our goal is to learn how different ways of recording and sending field data help farmers carry out on-farm experiments and make sense of their results. To do this, we provide a digital system that lets you send your observations as you go through the season. We review what you send, organize and digitize it, and make it available to you so you can interpret your own results.

If you agree to take part, you will use one of the following ways to send observations about your on-farm experiment, usually on a regular (for example, daily or weekly) basis:

• A mobile app — you can send text, audio, photos, and video.

• A messaging service — by WhatsApp, you can send text, audio, photos, video, location, and documents; by SMS text message, you can send text, audio, photos, and video.

• A paper notebook that you photograph from time to time so we can capture your handwritten notes.

We keep track of who sends what so that we can connect your observations to your specific experiment and return useful results to you.

Bringing in others: If you would like someone who works with you — such as a business partner, employee, or agronomist — to contribute to your experiment's records, you can give us their contact information. We will invite them to take part directly, and they will agree in the same way you do before sending any data. We contact them because you have identified them, so please make sure they expect to hear from us.

How long: Participation continues for as long as you are running experiments with us and choose to keep sending data. There is no fixed end date; you may stop at any time (see "Can I change my mind?" below).

Giving feedback: From time to time, we may invite you to share your experience using the system, either through a short survey or a conversation with a team member. This is optional and separate from sending your observations; you can decline and continue in the program as usual. With your permission, conversations may be audio-recorded so we capture your comments accurately; you can take part without being recorded.

The main risk in this study is to your privacy, because the information you send is connected to you. We do not anticipate any risks to you beyond those you encounter in daily life. To reduce privacy risk, please keep the following in mind:

• Please do not send sensitive personal or financial information (for example, government ID numbers, banking details, or passwords). The system is meant for field and experiment data only. If you send sensitive information anyway, we will not use it in the research and will remove or set it aside.

• Messaging services: If you choose to send data by SMS or WhatsApp, your messages pass through outside companies (for example, WhatsApp and Twilio) as part of how those services work. We do not share your data with any other party, but we cannot fully guarantee confidentiality while information travels over these outside systems. No guarantees can be made regarding interception of data sent over the internet by third parties.

• Location data: If you send GPS pins or photos that contain location information, that information can point to your farm. We store this securely and only use it to connect observations to your experiment.

The main benefit to you is help managing your own experiment data. We compile, digitize, and organize what you send — for example, turning a PDF of soil results into usable data, or tagging your photos — and make it available to you so you can interpret your own results. This lowers the effort of going from notes in your head or on paper to organized, digitized records. Where possible, we may add other data to give your records helpful context, though we cannot promise specific additions for every experiment.

More broadly, what we learn may help other farmers and improve the tools available for on-farm experimentation. Receiving this data-management help is part of the service and is not a payment for being in the research.

You will not be paid for taking part in this research. Using the system and receiving your reports is free.

We take the following steps to protect your data:

• All data you send is stored on a secured server managed by our lab at Cornell University.

• Only approved members of the Farmers Datalab research team have access to your data, and each person's access is limited to what their role requires.

• We connect your observations to your experiment using your records, and we keep this link only as long as needed to provide your results and complete the research.

• When we publish or present findings, we report results in combined (aggregate) form and do not identify you individually.

What we do with your data: We receive your submissions, then review, organize, and digitize them (for example, tagging photos or turning a PDF of soil results into usable data) and group them by experiment. Processed data is made available to you through a secure online dashboard, where you log in to see your own data. We may also combine your data with broader information to add helpful context. We keep your data on secured Cornell systems for the length of the study and may use de-identified data, which does not name you, for related research and to share findings in combined form with the wider research community.

Over time, de-identified data (with names removed and precise locations generalized) is kept indefinitely in a research archive, so the growing collection of on-farm experiments can help farmers compare and learn from similar farms in the years ahead.

Taking part in this research is voluntary. You may choose not to take part, or to stop at any time, and we will not penalize you. If you take part in a separate program with its own requirements about sharing data, those requirements are not part of this research; please direct any related questions to this program's administration.

Yes. You may stop taking part at any time, for any reason, with no penalty. To stop, you can tell us by replying STOP to the messaging number, emailing the team at farmersdatalab@gmail.com, or telling a team member. If you stop, we will not collect any new data from you. You may also ask us to remove data you have already sent, and we will do so where possible; data already combined into aggregate results may not be removable. You can also ask us for a copy of your own data at any time to download and keep.

About the research: You may ask questions about this study at any time, before or during your participation. Contact Louis Longchamps at LL928@cornell.edu / 607-255-6041.

About your rights as a research participant: If you have questions or concerns about your rights, or are unhappy about something, you may contact the Cornell University Institutional Review Board (IRB) at irbhp@cornell.edu or 607-255-5138, or visit researchservices.cornell.edu/offices/IRB. You may also report a concern anonymously through EthicsPoint at www.hotline.cornell.edu or 1-866-293-3077.

You do not need to sign this form. By continuing to use the system to send your observations — for example, by replying with your name to begin, or by submitting data through the app or notebook photos — you are indicating that you have read and understood this information and agree to take part.

We recommend you keep a copy of this information for your records. You can ask us for a copy at any time.

This consent information will be kept by the researcher for at least three years beyond the end of the study and was approved by the Cornell IRB on MMDDYYY.