Sensitive Data (SD) Services for Research

Our SD (Sensitive Data) services for research are designed to support secure sensitive data management through web-user interfaces accessible from the user’s own computer. SD services are comprised of five components that together help you manage sensitive data during all the phases of your research.

You can store and share encrypted sensitive data with SD Connect  and create a private workspace to compute sensitive data with SD Desktop. At the end of your research, you can publish sensitive data under controlled access with SD Submit (pilot phase) or biomedical data with Federated EGA and SD Apply enables data controllers to manage data access permissions for reuse of published research data.

SD services support national requirements for sensitive data and comply with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The services define the data processor (CSC) and data controller responsibilities. You manage the access to your data during all the phases of research. These services are suitable for primary use of research data. Moreover, SD Desktop is a certified computing environment for secondary use of health and social data according to Finnish regulations (specifically, Findata regulations and the Act on Secondary Use of Social and Health Data). A restricted version of SD Desktop is provided for secondary use, subject to specific limitations compared to the standard SD Desktop.

In the following pages, you can find a overview for IT personnel and organizations of the SD services and their future developments. 

Introduction to SD services for research (Finnish version)

Who can use SD services

SD services are suitable for managing sensitive data from any research field and for diverse purposes. The services (SD Connect, SD Desktop and SD Apply) are available free-of-charge to researchers and students affiliated with Finnish academic organizations, research institutes, and their international collaborators, in compliance with CSC’s General terms of use and policies. Using CSC services requires you to register a CSC account. Access to the Federated EGA service requires a separate contract and agreements between CSC and the academic organization (or data controller). Access to SD Desktop for processing social and health data under the Finnish Act on Secondary Use of Social and Health Data requires a data permit issued by Findata or a relevant public register.