In criminal justice research, which data protection practice reduces identifiability of participants?

• A. De-identification of data.
• B. Publishing names and contact info.
• C. Storing data in unencrypted files.
• D. Collecting unnecessary sensitive data without consent.

Answer: (A)

Reducing identifiability means making it difficult to link data back to a specific person. De-identification of data does this by stripping or masking identifying details—names, addresses, dates of birth, exact locations—and often replacing them with codes or aggregated categories. Researchers may generalize or remove quasi-identifiers (like turning exact ages into age ranges or broad geographic areas) and keep a separate, securely stored key that links codes to identities only for authorized personnel. This lowers the chance that someone who sees the dataset can identify participants, helping protect privacy and reduce potential harm.

Publishing names and contact information would directly reveal who the participants are, which defeats privacy protections. Storing data in unencrypted files creates a serious risk if the data are breached, potentially exposing identifiable information. Collecting unnecessary sensitive data without consent increases both privacy risk and the chance that someone could be identified from the dataset.