Even though your recordings will only exist temporarily, while they exist your research interview recordings are instances of personal data which are protected by the UK GDPR and Data Protection Act (2018), therefore you must treat them accordingly. Due to the nature of research interview recordings they may also contain confidential, sensitive data classed as special category data by the UK GDPR and Data Protection Act (2018): where this is the case, failure to keep the recordings secure is an especially serious matter.
Special category data is defined as containing:
During the period that you are in possession of your research interview recordings, please bear in mind that not only do you have a moral and professional obligation to respect your interviewees' confidentiality, you can also be held personally responsible in law for causing or allowing a data breach to take place - i.e., allowing someone else's personal data to become public, or to be accessed by someone with no right to access it. Again, in cases where special category data is held it is especially serious. Failure to treat your research recordings with the necessary care could also cause reputational damage to the University, and may lead to the University taking disciplinary action against individuals who have been negligent in their care of other people's personal data.
In general, you can ensure that you keep yourself safe, protect your interviewees' personal data, and be compliant with the UK GDPR and Data Protection Act (2018) and University policy by doing the following:
If you need to do something that is not covered in this guide, or is not approved in your ethics application and data management plan, you should seek advice from your dissertation supervisor or ethics committee before proceeding.
If you think that you have allowed a recording to be made public, have downloaded a recording to a computer or mobile device which has been lost, stolen or compromised by a cyber-attack, or shared or moved a recording in such a way as to allow a person or persons who should not have access to it to view it, you should do all of the following immediately upon becoming aware of the problem:
Reporting a data breach immediately upon discovery is critically important. And in every case, attempting to cover up a data breach is always a much more serious offence than causing or allowing one to happen.
In almost every case, researchers will take all necessary steps to protect the confidentiality and anonymity of their interviewees. However, there are some cases where you will be required to disclose what has been said by an interviewee, regardless of whether or not they consent to their information being shared. While the UK GDPR and Data Protection Act (or Data protection legislation) requires you, in the normal course of events, to keep your research data confidential, it does not prevent you from sharing this information in certain circumstances. If you have promised your interviewee that what they say will remain confidential, it is important that you also explain to them the circumstances under which you will be required to break confidentiality and disclose what they have said.
Broadly speaking, if you judge that your interviewee has made a credible threat to harm themselves or someone else, has revealed illegal behaviour by themselves or others, has given you grounds to believe that someone (including the interviewee) is being abused or is at serious risk of abuse (especially if this concerns children or vulnerable adults), or that an act of terror is in preparation or underway, you may be under a legal obligation to disclose this information to the authorities. However, you must not make this decision alone. If you become concerned by something that an interviewee has said during a interview, you should discuss this immediately after the interview with your dissertation supervisor or the head of your ethics committee. Under no circumstances should you attempt to cover up what has happened by deleting the recording.
The following excepts from BERA's Ethical Guidelines for Educational Research outline in more detail researchers' responsibilties regarding safeguarding, confidentiality and disclose.
#52. Researchers who judge that the agreements they have made with participants about confidentiality and anonymity will allow the continuation of illegal behaviour which has come to light in the course of the research should carefully consider making disclosure to the appropriate authorities. If behaviour reported by participants is likely to be harmful to the participants or to others, the researchers must also consider disclosure. In some cases, such as revelations of abuse or proposed acts of terror, researchers may be under statutory duty to disclose confidential information to relevant authorities, and they must be aware of these responsibilities. Researchers should seek advice from a relevant responsible person before proceeding to disclosure if and when appropriate (students should seek advice from supervisors). Insofar as it does not undermine or obviate the disclosure, or jeopardise researcher safety, researchers should inform the participants, or their guardians or responsible others, of their intentions and reasons for disclosure. In some parts of the world low-level corruption is so endemic that it may be encountered very often. In such contexts, researchers will have to make a situated judgement as to what, if anything, to report, what to describe and what to accept.
#53. At all times, the decision to override agreements on confidentiality and anonymity should be taken after careful and thorough deliberation. In such circumstances it is in the researcher’s interests to make contemporaneous notes on decisions and the reasoning behind them, in case a misconduct complaint or other serious consequence arises. The researcher should also consider very carefully whether overriding confidentiality and anonymity compromises the integrity and/or usefulness of data, and withdraw any compromised data from the study.
From: BERA (2018) Ethical Guidelines for Educational Research, fourth edition