Bachelor's Thesis Alisa Voitsekhivska
Investigating Data Privacy Practices in Research Institutes: A Case Study
Research institutes in Europe face unique challenges when balancing the rights of study participants with the need to facilitate cooperation and curtail data storage restrictions, as well as address secondary data use and the growing demand for transparency and data sharing (Dove, 2018; Ducato, 2020). The operational procedures for GDPR Article 89, which provide data protection safeguards for participants in scientific studies, are left to the discretion of individual institutes, resulting in a variety of interpretations. This is especially problematic in international collaborations and in the so-called “open science” paradigm (Dove, 2018; Vayena et al., 2019).
This thesis focuses on the implementation of data protection practices in the Max Planck Institutes and aims to capture the perspective of Data Protection Coordinators, who serve as primary operational contacts for the intersection of legal, institutional, and research practice realms.
Research Questions:
(1) which legal/organizational frameworks and internal instruments DPCs rely on?
(2) where these frameworks fall short and which local adaptations emerge?
(3) how privacy requirements hinder, reshape, or enable research?
| Attribute | Value |
|---|---|
| Title (de) | Untersuchung der Datenschutzpraktiken in Forschungsinstituten: Eine Fallstudie |
| Title (en) | Investigating Data Privacy Practices in Research Institutes: A Case Study |
| Project | |
| Type | Bachelor's Thesis |
| Status | started |
| Student | Alisa Voitsekhivska |
| Advisor | Stephen Meisenbacher |
| Supervisor | Prof. Dr. Florian Matthes |
| Start Date | 10.11.2025 |
| Sebis Contributor Agreement signed on | 06.11.2025 |
| Checklist filled | Yes |
| Submission date | 10.03.2026 |