What is the difference between confidential and anonymous and why does the IRB insist on the correct terminology?
Data is confidential if the researcher can link the data to a particular participant but will protect the privacy of the participant. The data is anonymous if there are no identifiers connected to the data and the researcher is unable to link data to any one individual. Identifiers may include gender, religion, birth month, salary range, or ethnicity, especially if the subject pool is small. If the data is of a sensitive nature, the IRB would carefully examine the consent form to ensure that the participant is aware of study design. Projects may collect data in a confidential manner but analyze and/or report it in an anonymous manner, or the data may be collected and analyzed on an anonymous basis. The consent form should make these procedures clearly understood.
