How Much Data Should I Request? Balancing Richness and Compliance in Digital Trace Data Donations

Ernesto de León, Laura Boeschoten, Fabio Votta, Joris Mulder, Bella Struminskaya, Daniel Oberski, Theo Araujo, Claes de Vreese, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, University of Utrecht, the Netherlands, the Netherlands

Social Science Computer Review

Published online on March 31, 2026

Abstract

Social Science Computer Review, Ahead of Print.
Digital trace “data donation” studies offer researchers a unique opportunity to collect high-quality behavioral data, but decisions about the scope of requested data can impact both dataset richness and participant compliance. This paper examines the ...