Box B: Unique identifiers protected under US law
If data on research subjects includes any of these identifiers they
are covered by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act
1996 and need to be protected
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Names
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All geographic subdivisions smaller than a State, including street address,
city, county, precinct, zip code, and their equivalent geocodes, except
for the initial three digits of a zip code if, according to the publicly
available data from the bureau of the Census:
-
The geographic unit formed by combining all zip codes with the same three
initial digits contains more than 20 000 people and
-
The initial three digits of a zip code for all such geographic units containing
20 000 or fewer people is change to 000.
-
All elements of dates (except year) for dates directly related to an individual
including birth date, admission date, discharge data, date of death; and
all ages over 89 and all elements of dates (including year) indicate of
such age, except that such ages and elements may be aggregated into a single
category of age 90 or older
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Telephone numbers
-
Fax numbers
-
Electronic mail addresses
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Social security numbers
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Medical record numbers
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Health plan beneficiary numbers
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Account numbers
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Certificate/license numbers
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Vehicle identifiers and serial numbers, including license plate numbers
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Device identifiers and serial numbers
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Web Universal Resource Locators (URLs)
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Internet Protocol (IP) address numbers
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Biometric identifiers, including finger and voice prints
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Full face photographic images and any comparable images
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Any other unique identifying number, characteristic, or code
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