They also accessed more than 16,000 messages to the
Female-to-Male support network from 1999 to 2006. The potential ethical issues that
might arise when using what the contributors may perceive as private correspondence
were addressed by the researchers posting a message on the Press for Change website to
inform members that the researchers were searching the online database. Those who
objected to their messages being used as evidence could contact the researchers to
request that their data be excluded from the work.