A researcher leaves a research file in her car while she attends a concert and her car is stolen. The file contains charts of aggregated numerical data from a research study with human subjects, but no other documents. The consent form said that no identifying information would be retained, and the researcher adhered to that component. Which of the following statements best characterizes what occurred?
There was neither a violation of privacy nor a breach of confidentiality.
A researcher leaves a research file in her car while she attends a concert and her car is stolen. The file contains charts of aggregated numerical data from a research study with human subjects, but no other documents. The consent form said that no identifying information would be retained, and the researcher adhered to that component. Which of the following statements best characterizes what occurred?
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There was neither a violation of privacy nor a breach of confidentiality.
The reason for this is that the researcher complied with the consent form stating that no identifying information would be retained. Since the file contained only aggregated numerical data and no personal identifiers, the privacy of the research subjects was maintained. Therefore, although the file was lost due to external circumstances (the car theft), the confidentiality of the individual subjects was not compromised.