Which of the following actions would most clearly contribute to protecting participants' privacy?

Which of the following actions would most clearly contribute to protecting participants' privacy?

• A. Releasing identifiable health information publicly.
• B. Ensuring confidentiality by limiting data access.
• C. Publishing participant names in reports.
• D. Sharing raw data with all colleagues.

Answer: (B)

Protecting participants' privacy means keeping identifiable information secure and sharing it only with people who need to know for the study. Limiting data access does this by requiring authorization and using secure systems, which reduces the risk that someone could identify a participant or access sensitive health details. Actions that expose identifiable information—like releasing health details publicly, publishing participant names, or sharing raw data with all colleagues—would undermine privacy and potentially cause harm. Therefore, restricting access to data to authorized personnel best protects participants’ privacy.

Protecting participants' privacy means keeping identifiable information secure and sharing it only with people who need to know for the study. Limiting data access does this by requiring authorization and using secure systems, which reduces the risk that someone could identify a participant or access sensitive health details. Actions that expose identifiable information—like releasing health details publicly, publishing participant names, or sharing raw data with all colleagues—would undermine privacy and potentially cause harm. Therefore, restricting access to data to authorized personnel best protects participants’ privacy.