Confidentiality

Information about participants’ social networks is being collected for research purposes. Participation in this study and information gathered from this study is kept confidential. Here is how we protect your confidentiality:

  1. Your decision to participate (or not) will not be shared with anyone, including Brown University staff, administrators, coaches, or your parents/guardians.
  2. Your survey answers will be coded by an identification number so no identifying information about you (including your name) will be stored with your answers. Your name and contact information will be stored in a separate survey and database so they cannot be linked to your survey answers.
  3. In the surveys, a pull-down list of names of Brown class of 2021 students will allow you to select individuals who are important to you. These names are part of the questionnaire only and are never stored with any survey answers. Our research team will not see the names you have selected, as they are coded as identification numbers in the data.
  4. When you submit survey answers, they are encrypted using Transport Layer Security (TLS), which is the same technology used for making online purchases with credit cards. This method ensures that no one can see your answers while they are transmitted over the internet.
  5. Survey data will be stored on a secure server in the School of Public Health in password protected database files.
  6. To help protect your privacy, we have received a Certificate of Confidentiality from the National Institutes of Health. With this certificate, the researchers cannot be forced, even by a court subpoena, to disclose information that may identify you. The researchers will use the Certificate to resist any demands for information that would identify you, except:
    • Since this project is federally funded, the Certificate cannot be used to resist an audit or evaluation by the US government.
    • If an insurer, employer or other person obtains your written consent to receive research information, then the researcher may not use the Certificate to withhold that information.
    • In instances such as evidence of child abuse or a participant’s threatened violence to self or others.

Information about Confidentiality: Our procedures are approved by the Brown University Institutional Review Board. Brown administrators supported the conduct of this study, but participation is not a Brown University requirement. No Brown administrators, parents/guardians or other students have access to participant responses.