 A more unique application of cloud computing for research involves the crowdsourcing of data analysis and processing functions, that is, leveraging the thousands of users of various online products and services to complete research related tasks remotely. Examples include using a distributed network of video game players to assist in solving protein folding problems (Markoff 2010), and leveraging Amazon’s Mechanical Turk crowdsourcing marketplace platform to assist with large scale data processing and coding functions that cannot be automated (Conley &amp; Tosti-Kharas 2014; J. Chen et al. 2011). Using cloud-based platforms can raise various critical ethical and methodological issues.