Examples of sensitive personal data
Why do I need to think about this?
Sensitive personal data can also arise when a student project is actually about professional role, working methods or general experiences. If the conversation veers into health, political views or religious beliefs, for example, it can become sensitive personal data.
The supervisor and student therefore need to be aware of the risks and plan the work so that the participants' privacy is protected.
Remember
Sensitive data may arise unplanned (e.g. in free-text answers or "sidetracks" in interviews). If sensitive data may be present, it must be handled according to the procedure and under ethically acceptable forms.
Examples by field of study
Political Science
Example: A student interviews a politician who has openly presented his political views. However, information about political opinions is sensitive personal data, but can be processed when the person himself has made it public.
Remember: If a student interviews a private individual about political sympathies, consent must be obtained.
Nursing
Example: A student writes about nurses' experiences of night work. Organizational issues are not normally sensitive. But if the interviews include the nurse's own health or patient cases with medical information, it becomes sensitive personal data.
Occupational Health Sciences
Example: A student interviews rehabilitation coordinators about the organization of rehabilitation. Work routines and resources are normally not sensitive. But if specific patients or employees' health conditions are mentioned, it becomes sensitive personal data.
Social worker
Example 1: A student interviews social workers about workload and legislation. As long as it is about the job role and general reflections, it usually does not contain sensitive information. If the interview includes details about individual clients or the social worker's own health, it will be sensitive personal data.
Example 2: A student interviews a young person with contact with social services. General reflections on meetings may be ok, but if the interview contains information about mental illness/diagnoses, domestic violence, substance abuse among relatives, financial problems or other details about identifiable people, it becomes sensitive personal data.
Preschool Teacher
Example: A student interviews preschool teachers about the planning of educational activities. Professional role is not sensitive. However, if the interview contains information about individual children's health, developmental level, or family circumstances, it may constitute sensitive personal data.
Teachers
Example: A student investigates how upper secondary school teachers work with digital learning materials. Methods and working conditions are not normally sensitive. But if the interview goes into the ethnicity or special needs of individual students, it becomes sensitive personal data.
Quick check: my study risks getting sensitive data if the answers can be about some person's:
- health (physical or mental)
- Political views
- religion or philosophical beliefs
- ethnic origin
- sex life/sexual orientation
- Trade union membership
In this case, sensitive personal data can be processed and the procedure needs to be followed particularly carefully.
Practical tips to reduce risk
- Formulate questions that stick to professional role and general experiences (avoid "tell me about a specific person/student/client").
- Steer away from details about individuals: ask the participant to speak in general, not about individual cases.
- Be extra careful with free text fields in surveys (where the participant can enter sensitive information).
- Plan management and storage before collection so that the level of protection matches the sensitivity of the data.
Need advice?
If you are unsure whether data may become sensitive, or whether consent/craftsmanship will be difficult in practice, support the procedure and contact the data protection officer well in advance: dataskyddsombud@miun.se.