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Researchers inadvertently identify online sex survey participants

EHR Connection, January 21, 2008

British researchers mistakenly included the names of respondents to a confidential online survey about male sexual health in e-mails thanking 100 of them for their participation, according to a January 6 Manchester Evening News article.

Approximately 350 young men participated in the online survey for the publicly-funded Manchester Health Watchdog (the Watchdog) that targeted students and recruited them via university Web pages, according to the British newspaper.

Survey organizers forgot to conceal the addresses when the Watchdog sent the e-mail thanking participants, the paper said.

Black Health Agency, which ran the survey for the Watchdog, apologized for its error and promised to contact everyone affected to offer an explanation and reassurance that no personal information had been released.

"We want to apologize for the e-mail, it was our error, it is not something we should have done. We would like to reassure people that all of the personal details given to us during the survey remain confidential," an agency spokesman told the newspaper. "Staff have discussed the need for security and have received training and we shall be looking at the issue again."

Martin Rathfelder, a Watchdog member, also apologized. "We commissioned the survey so we would like to apologize as well. We plan to talk to the agency to see what happened and ensure it does not happen again," he said.

Christopher Garrett, a Manchester University linguistics student, was among those affected by the data security breach. The apologies didn't seem to reassure him.

"I saw a message on a Manchester University Facebook page asking for people to take part in the survey, it seemed something worth doing that'd only take a few minutes of my time," Garrett told the newspaper. "I received an e-mail which contained not just my e-mail address but the e-mail address of every single person who participated in the study. I'm disgusted and appalled, especially considering the sensitive nature of the information in question and the fact that the survey was regarding sexual health."

Garrett, 21, expressed concern, about the confidentiality of the data collected by the researchers. "It makes me wonder just how confidential the information they've collected really is and if it's even being protected at all. I'd urge people to think twice before participating in any online survey now," he said. .

Click here to read the Manchester Evening News article.

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