As a researcher in COBE Lab, you need to be especially attentive to data management and GDPR because our computers have open users. This means that you do not log in with your personal AU-ID, but our computers open automatically with a login accessible to everyone using the lab. This makes your data more vulnarable to data theft and data breach. Therefore, it is important that you familiarize yourself with the GDPR regulations and good data management practices.
If you collect data using COBE Lab, you most likely collect personal data (data from/about people). AU has created this page, if you collect and process personal information in your research project.
Examples of personal data:
| Type | Examples |
|---|---|
| General | Name, age, gender, height, weight, contact information (phone number, email), location data. |
| Sensitive | Racial or ethnic origin, political, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, genetic/biometric data for the purpose of uniquely identifying a natural person, health data, data concerning a natural person's sexual relationships and sexual orientation, criminal records. |
| Confidential | CPR numbers, information subject to a duty of confidentiality, information about income and financial situation, work, education and employment conditions or internal family affairs. |
You can read more about the types of data here. Which system you need to use to store your data depends on the type of data you collect. You can see which systems AU offers to store data on here.
If you are in doubt about which type of data you collect and/or which system to use to store your data, please contact your local data management team.
Regardless of which type of data you collect, you cannot store your data on COBE Lab's computers. This is because, as mentioned above, they use open users, so your data are at risk of theft and breach. Furthermore, we routinely delete all unnecessary files on our computers to manage storage. So your data are also at risk of deletion, if you store them on COBE Lab's computers.
Please remember to delete all files and data from COBE Lab's computers when you have finished data collection to protect your own research, your participants and in the interest of the lab.
1. Familiarize yourself with the type of data you will collect and how to store it correctly.
2. Remove data continuously during data collection from COBE Lab's equipment due to risks of data breach and theft.
3. Once you have finished data collection, remove all data and experiment files from COBE Lab's equipment, so the equipment is ready for other researchers to use.