Data Storage and Sharing

An important part of this research is making sure that your data can impact as many programs as possible.  For that reason, different programs in our region are collaborating to make larger data sets, learn about different aspects of belonging and share what they know.  An important part of that is sharing your data.  Here we explain  in more detail how your data will be stored and shared.

Data is collected anonymously by LogicalOutcomes using a program called Lime Survey. LogicalOutcomes is a Canadian nonprofit organization and evaluation vendor.   Data is stored indefinitely on an encrypted MySQL database on Canadian servers.

LogicalOutcomes combines survey responses in reports that are seen by the research group and the participating programs in the project. Your answers will be combined with other people’s answers in these reports. This is to prevent anyone from guessing who you are.  Your data will also be shared with external researchers at the University of Waterloo so they can help the local program evaluate and improve. In all these cases, access to your de-identified information will be password protected.

If you choose to include your data in the open data set, then your data will be available in the future as part of a large de-identified dataset. The dataset will be available from the researchers by request. This open data is intended to be used widely to gain insight on belonging, but we will not have control over its exact uses. As with the other data set, your answers will be combined with other people’s answers and there will be no way to identify you from your responses.