What is the difference between anonymity and confidentiality?
When describing your data collection and data management procedures for research involving human participants, you will inevitably need to discuss anonymity and confidentiality. These two concepts are especially important to consider as you apply for Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval, as the IRB will want to ensure that you are taking appropriate precautions to protect participants. However, many students struggle to properly differentiate anonymity and confidentiality and often use these terms interchangeably. So, what exactly is the difference between the two?
Anonymity means that there is no way for anyone (including the researcher) to personally identify participants in the study. An anonymous study cannot collect personally-identifying information, such as names, addresses, emails, phone numbers, government-issued IDs, photos, or IP addresses. Additionally, any face-to-face or phone-based study is not anonymous, excluding most qualitative research with interviews.
Online surveys are common for anonymous data collection, but not all are truly anonymous. If researchers track email or IP addresses, privacy is lost. Sometimes IRBs will require that participants have a way to withdraw their survey responses. In these cases, collecting a personal identifier such as an e-mail address may be inevitable. Additionally, depending on the study’s sample frame, surveys that collect several pieces of demographic information may not be truly anonymous. For example, in a company sample, demographics like age, gender, ethnicity, or tenure could identify participants.
Confidentiality allows participant identification, but only the researcher knows their identities and keeps them undisclosed. Proper data management and security best ensure confidentiality. Researchers use ID numbers (quantitative) or pseudonyms (qualitative) to keep identities separate from data. They must follow IRB-required security measures, including locking paper data, password-protecting electronic data, and securely destroying it after research completion.
Whether anonymous or confidential, inform participants about the data collected and identity protection. Include these details in the consent form to ensure privacy.