Where should I store personal data?
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google drive, onedrive, teams, surfdrive, paper, security
Date of last review: 2022-06-02
If you work at Utrecht University (UU), you can find a suitable storage medium for digital research data via the Storage Finder. For personal data, select Sensitive or Critical (depending on the sensitivity of your data) under question 4 about Confidentiality.
Most storage media in this overview are suitable for storing personal data, either because they are controlled by UU (e.g., U- and O-drive, Beta File System) or because UU has a Data Processing Agreement in place with the storage supplier (e.g., Microsoft Office 365, Yoda).
Is your preferred storage medium not included in the storage finder? Contact RDM Support or your local data manager to find an alternative solution.
- Consider encrypting your data, especially when using portable devices (e.g, memory sticks, phones, dictaphones). Portable devices are also not suitable as back-up, due to bit rot and being easily lost.
- Physical personal data (e.g., paper questionnaires, informed consent forms) should be stored securely too, e.g. in a locked room, cabinet or drawer. You should also avoid leaving unsecured copies lying around (e.g., on a desk or printer).
Do not store research data containing personal data on public cloud services, e.g., Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, Box, Mega, iDrive, iCloud, NextCloud, etc. These services are not (always) GDPR-compliant and/or may not offer sufficient data security. Moreover, UU does not have any formal agreements with these services, enabling them to use the data stored on their platforms for their own purposes.