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Sensitive data and confidentiality

When research data are obtained from people as participants (interviews, focus groups, questionnaires, etc.), certain data may be sensitive or confidential (e.g. income data, farm management data, etc.). Data confidentiality does not prevent the archiving and sharing of data if the necessary actions are taken early on in the research. Good research ethics dictates that:

• participants are informed how the research data will be used
• participants are informed how confidentiality will be maintained (a researcher has a duty of confidentiality)
• consent is obtained from participants (written or verbal) to use the research data for various purposes

Re-use of data by sharing and archiving is a form of data use that needs to be considered in consent and confidentiality agreements, besides the primary use of the data for the original research. A common danger for researchers when negotiating a consent agreement is the offer to keep what is discussed between the researcher and the participant confidential.

Relu researchers (as ESRC award holders) have the responsibility to discuss confidentiality and consent with participants, based on the understanding that research data will be shared with other researchers. The ESRC Research Ethics Framework specifically states that "researchers who collect the data initially should be aware that ESRC expects that others will also use the data, so consent should be obtained on this basis and the original researcher must take into account the long-term use and preservation of data". Confidentiality of data can be maintained by anonymising confidential information, by removing or masking identifiers prior to archiving/sharing or by restricting access to archived data.

Participants should therefore be informed upfront that (anonymised) research data will be shared with other bona-fide researchers and consent must be sought for all the uses of research data, including sharing with other researchers.

Obtaining informed consent for data sharing, anonymising data and controlling access to data are effective ways to deal with data confidentiality and still enable sharing.

For detailed guidelines see: confidentiality, consent and ethics in data sharing on the UKDA web site.