Protecting respondent privacy and confidentiality
The Data Archive will accept data files that are completely within the public domain. Principle investigators are responsible for ensuring that respondent privacy and confidentiality is preserved by addressing both direct as well as indirect identifiers. Direct identifiers include items such as names, addresses, or numbers for telephone, social security, driver's license, etc. There are also indirect identifiers which, when used with other variables in the data set, may provide enough detail to identify the respondent
Examples of indirect identifiers:
Geographic detail (zip code, census tract, block number, etc.)
Membership in clubs, groups, organizations, etc.
Names of schools attended by the respondent or respondent's family
Job titles, positions held in organizations, elected offices, etc.
Personal information such as income, events, certain medical procedures, etc.