Confidentiality

Protecting information given by research participants from unauthorised disclosure.

Ethical considerations include informed consent, confidentiality and data protection. Participants should understand what taking part involves before agreeing. Researchers must also plan how to protect information participants provide, including how it will be stored and who can access it.

Protecting research information from unauthorised access or disclosure, in accordance with what participants have been told and agreed.

Distinguish confidentiality from anonymity: restricting access to information is not the same as preventing identification.

Distinguish confidentiality from data protection: confidentiality concerns keeping participants' information private; data protection concerns legal rights and the handling of personal data.

Explain why confidentiality matters, rather than simply saying that researchers should keep information secret: link it to privacy, possible consequences of disclosure and trust.

Keeping research information private and allowing access only to people authorised to see it.

Protecting information entrusted to researchers so that identifiable personal information is not disclosed to others without an appropriate basis.

Keeping participants’ research information within the research team rather than disclosing it to others.

Keeping participants' personal information private and not disclosing identifiable information outside the research team.

Protecting information supplied by participants and not reporting it in ways that reveal their identities.

Confidentiality means protecting participants' information and not revealing their identities in reports. Researchers should store data securely and remove identifying details. An anonymous questionnaire can collect answers without names; an interview is not anonymous to the interviewer, but its findings can still be reported confidentially.

Keeping information about participants private.

Protecting information about research participants from unauthorised disclosure and keeping its use within agreed limits.

Protection of research information from disclosure to people who are not authorised to receive it.

Protecting participants' information so that it is not disclosed in ways that identify them.

Protecting information provided by participants so that it is not disclosed in ways that identify them.

Definition

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AQA GCSE Sociology · 8192

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Eduqas GCSE Sociology · C200