# Privacy in research

Personal data. Why would you handle it with care? It only takes extra time and trouble to properly arrange it all. No... It can even offer you a lot of benefits. Really. Here are four reasons why careful handling of personal data may be important.

### 1. Code of conduct

In the ‘Netherlands Code of Conduct for Scientific Practice’ (2014) safeguarding the privacy of persons involved in the research is explicitly referred to as a further interpretation of the principle of ‘honesty and scrupulousness’. This code of conduct sets out the principles that Dutch scientific practitioners should adhere to for the correct performance of their task and to which they can be held accountable where appropriate. It reads:

"Every academic practitioner demonstrates respect for the people and animals involved in scientific teaching and research. Research on human subjects is exclusively permitted if the persons concerned have freely given informed consent, the risks are minimal and their privacy is sufficiently safeguarded.​”

### 2. Accountability

The new privacy legislation GDPR offers instruments such as the DPIA (Data Protection Impact Assessment) to help you to review your study even more proactively. These instruments give you an exact insight into the challenges with regard to privacy that apply to your study, enable you to anticipate quicker and ensure that you are more ‘in control’ during the study. This provides a clear overview, prior to the research project, to safeguard privacy in the different stages of your research, in terms of compliance to the GDPR.

### 3. Impact

Researchers do not only seek scientific impact, but also aim to have impact on society. Demonstrably safeguarding the privacy of all persons involved, and transparency about how you do this, contributes to confidence in research in general and in the reliability of the institution you are associated with. Data leaks harm the trust in research, the institution and the researcher.

### 4. Collaboration

Safeguarding privacy is also important for your attractiveness as a reliable (international) research partner, so that in addition to your substantive contribution you also distinguish yourself in a preconditional sense. In this way it is easier for you to participate in research consortiums and compete for research funding.