CONFIDENTIALITY
2. Revealing personal information can have very serious effects.

Research often involves talking to people about very sensitive issues. Sensitive information includes, for example:

• HIV status
• religious beliefs
• sexual history
• where someone lives
• information about drug use
• information about prescribed medications

Revealing sensitive information can affect family and social relationships. It can cause someone to lose health insurance. It can cause someone to lose a job or go to jail.

This means that breaking confidentiality by talking on the bus, in a conversation in an elevator, or by talking on a cell phone in public could have very bad effects.

It is not OK to talk with your friends or family about any specific private information you learn from research. Don't make research information into gossip.

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