The ethics of self-tracking. A comprehensive review of the literature

Figures & data

Table 1. Search strings

Scopus search string	(TITLE-ABS-KEY (”self-track*” OR ”self-quantif*” OR ”quantified self*” OR ”personal informatic*” OR ”personal analytic*” OR “lifelog*”) AND TITLE-ABS-KEY (ethic* OR moral* OR virtue* OR norm*)) AND (LIMIT-TO (LANGUAGE, ”English”))
WebofScience search string	((”self-track*” OR ”self-quantif*” OR ”quantified self*” OR ”personal informatic*” OR ”personal analytic*” OR ”lifelog*”) AND (ethic* OR moral* OR virtue* OR norm*))
Academic Search Complete search string	(”self-track*” OR ”self-quantif*” OR ”quantified self*” OR ”personal informatic*” OR ”personal analytic*” OR ”lifelog*”) AND (ethic* OR moral* OR virtue* OR norm*)
PhilPapers search string	(”self-track*” | ”self-quantif*” | ”quantified self*” | ”lifelog*”) & (ethic* | moral* | virtue* | norm*)^a

^aIn the case of PhilPapers, we were forced to exclude the terms “personal analytic*” and “personal informatic*” as the search with full sets was too complex for the engine. However, including only either one of those terms in the first set led to zero results in test searches.

Table 2. Number of works extracted for the review.

Scopus	161
WebofScience	111
Academic Search Complete	61
PhilPapers	25
Number of results after exclusion of duplicates	212
Number of results that were not peer reviewed journal articles, books or book chapters	62
Number of results unavailable to us	5
Number of results excluded based on titles, abstracts and keywords	71
Number of results selected for full reading	74
Number of results rejected on the basis of full reading	34
Final number of relevant results extracted through database search	40
Number of relevant works extracted through backwards snowballing	21
Number of relevant book chapters extracted on the basis of full examination of books extracted through search and backwards snowballing	4
Final number of works discussed in the review	65

Table 3. Categories of ethical aspects of self-tracking.

Opportunities
Empowerment and well-being	29
Contribution to health goals	17
Community and solidarity	15
Concerns
Social harms	52
Privacy and surveillance	42
Ownership, control and commodification of data	41
Autonomy	32
Data-facilitated harm	30
Datafication and interpretability of data	27
Negative impact on relation to self and others	27
Shortcomings of design	24
Negative impact on health perception	15
Regulation and enforcement of rules	15