Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 76 Page 77 Page 78 Page 79 Page 80 Page 81 Page 82 Page 83 Page 84 Page 85 Page 86 Page 87 Page 88 Page 89 Page 90 Page 91 Page 92 Page 93 Page 94 Page 95 Page 96 Page 97 Page 98 Page 99 Page 100 Page 101 Page 102 Page 103 Page 104 Page 105 Page 106 Page 107 Page 108The HRS by its nature asks questions about some of the most personal and confidential aspects of participants’ lives. Nothing is more impor- tant to the NIA, the University of Michigan, and the HRS study team than protecting the confidentiality of the respondents and what they have shared. This protection of privacy is also an essential element in ensuring people’s participation in this type of extensive, long-term social science survey. To ensure privacy and confidentiality, all study participants’ names, addresses, and contact information are maintained in a secure control file. All personnel and affiliates with access to identifying information must sign a pledge of confidentiality, which explicitly prohibits disclo- sure of information about study participants. The survey data are only released to the research community after un- dergoing a rigorous process to remove or mask any identifying informa- tion. In the first stage, a list of variables (such as State of residence or specific occupation) that will be removed or masked for confidentiality is created. After those variables are removed from the data file, the remaining variables are tested for any possible identifying content. When testing is complete, the data files are subject to final review and approval by the HRS Data Release Protocol Committee. Data ready for public use are made available to qualified researchers via a secure website. Registration is required of all researchers before downloading files for analyses. In addition, use of linked data from other sources, such as Social Security or Medicare records, is strictly controlled under special agreements with specially approved research- ers operating in secure computing environments that are periodically audited for compliance. The HRS also obtained a Certificate of Confi- dentiality from the National Institutes of Health in order to protect the data from any forced disclosure. Protecting HRS Participant Confidentiality 15