Your Privacy is Important to Us

Your privacy is extremely important to us! When you participate in CARE, your personal information is shared only with the local site team. Your responses to surveys, outcomes from the samples we take, and program results – “research data” – are anonymous. These results may be shared with other researchers, reviewed by our institutions or the state of California, or even published, but we will not use your name or other personal information publicly.  

Participant Privacy and Security

As leaders in stress research, our team is fully committed to keeping your information secure. Some of the security steps we take:  

  • We store all personal health information on a secure database, which can only be accessed through encrypted computers.  
  • Only authorized study personnel can access this information. Your study team has undergone strict trainings, and they have agreed to maintain your privacy and security. 
  • We assign all participants an ID number, rather than using your name, to protect your privacy during study procedures and communication.  

As with all virtual and electronic data storage, we cannot guarantee total privacy. Your personal information may be given out in extreme cases, if required by law or in the event of a data breach.  

Although loss of privacy is a risk, chances are low that this will occur, and your study team is working their hardest to ensure it does not happen.