Guidelines for processing personal data as part of a study assignment

If you are planning to collect and process personal data as part of your study assignment, you must follow the guidelines issued by the university. Before you collect personal data for your assignment, you need to consider whether it is necessary to process personal data to complete the assignment. If you can do the assignment without them, you do not need to follow the guidelines, which will make your work easier. These guidelines include a seven-step routine that students must follow when processing personal data as part of their studies.

The guidelines are available here: Guidelines for processing personal data as part of study assignments at Södertörn University Word, 67.8 kB, opens in new window.

Consent and information about personal data processing

If you are going to collect personal data, you must also obtain informed consent from each person who will participate in your study. Before they consent to having their personal data processed, they must receive information about the purpose of the personal data processing, how their personal data will be managed and protected and who is responsible for the personal data processing. Södertörn University has produced a template for the information and consent form to be used when you obtain consent. The template is available here: Template – information and consent form for study assignments Word, 48.9 kB, opens in new window.

If you supervisor has provided their approval for collecting sensitive personal data, you must use the “Template for information and consent form for study assignments involving sensitive personal data”. The template is available here: Template for information and consent form for study assignments involving sensitive personal data Word, 49.8 kB, opens in new window.

Consent may also be obtained orally. When consent is provided orally, it is very important that it is documented, for example in a recording. Before oral consent can be provided, the person must have received information about personal data processing. The university has produced a template for the information text you can use when obtaining oral consent. The template is available here: Template for information text about personal data processing as part of a study assignment Word, 49.5 kB, opens in new window.

Security measures when processing personal data

Material with personal data must not be stored or processed using external storage services such as Dropbox, Google Docs, iCloud or similar. Instead, use the tools offered by the university, such as Office 365 (for storage), Zoom (for interviews) and Sunet Survey (for e-questionnaires).

Sensitive personal data must not be stored using any of Microsoft’s services, e.g. OneDrive or Teams. Sensitive personal data may only be processed in IT environments approved by the university, and there are currently no technical solutions available that allow students to process this type of personal data. You and your supervisor should therefore discuss whether it is practically feasible for you to collect and process personal data.

Establish a register

Once you have collected personal data, you must establish a register. This must contain a description that includes the type of personal data you are processing and the purpose of this processing. Note that the register must not contain any actual personal data, such as names of interviewees.

Södertörn University has produced a register template that you must use. The template is available here: Blankett registerförteckning studentarbeten Word, 48.7 kB, opens in new window. (in Swedish), Register for personal data processing Word, 48.2 kB, opens in new window. (in English)