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Secure Empirical Analysis Lab (SEAL)

Faculty of Social Sciences

What kinds of data are confidential?

“Data

Most of our data clients have confidential data.

Confidential data falls into two broad categories: Personally identifiable information (PII) and Intellectual property (IP).

  1. Personal identifiable informationis any data that can be used to identify a specific individual. This would include: SIN numbers, health card information, mail or email addresses, geolocation information, phone numbers, social media posts, or digital images. These may be protected under various laws such as, in Canada, PIPEDA (Federal) or, PHIPA and PIPA (Provincial). If you are a member of a university, this type of data is a major concern of research ethics boards who need to approve your research.
  2. Intellectual propertyincludes knowledge, information, products and ideas that are created by individuals and firms.  If you are a researcher receiving information from a firm, they will want to be assured that their IP is protected against unintentional or broad dissemination.