Data Privacy and Security

Introduction:

Transana Multiuser is a computer application designed to allow collaborative qualitative analysis of video, audio, text, PDF, and still image data. The system is designed to share data within a research team, but also to preserve privacy, confidentiality, and data security.  However, given the flexibility of the system, it’s a little tricky to describe all the possibilities clearly.

There are three categories of data one works with in Transana Multiuser, raw data files, analytic data in Transana’s database, and intermediary files created by Transana to accomplish specific analytic tasks.

The illustration below shows a hypothetical Transana Multiuser setup.  A team of researchers at one location, called Local Network #1, shows three researchers sharing a local media library.  Local Network #2 shows two additional researcher team members at a different location with their own copy of the media library.  There is also an individual researcher at a third location with a third copy of the media library.  All of these researchers are connected through the internet to a common Transana Server, which contains the Transana Database and runs the Transana Message Server.  Finally, there is a remote file sharing system, called the Video Synch Server in this diagram, that is responsible for keeping the three copies of the media library up to date.  So for collaborative analysis using Transana Multiuser, all researchers connect to the Transana Server to communicate with the shared project database and each location, defined by a local network, has a shared copy of the project’s data files that is synchronized with all other copies.

Raw Data Files:

Raw data files are the text, PDF, still image, audio, and video files the project researchers bring in to Transana for analysis. The users identify files in their local media library, usually on a network share, for analysis. Transana copies plain text data into its database (more on that below) but stores only link to the files (file name and full path) on the user computer system for PDFs, still image files, audio files, and video files.

The reason each network needs its own copy of the media library is that video data files can be very large.  As part of normal operation during the analysis of video, Transana needs to be able to load the video file and jump to an arbitrary location in that file to play an analytic selection.  This requires fast access to those files.  Local area networks are typically fast enough for Transana to run smoothly, but wide area networks often run into transfer speed issues.

File sharing tools such as Box, DropBox, OneDrive, Google Drive, etc., often can be configured to download copies of shared data files to local repositories.  These systems allow automatic synchronization of media libraries in separate locations, copying files added in one location to all other locations.  Note that privacy and data security in this situation is the responsibility of the network administrators at each location and of the data sharing tool controlling this synchronization process, not of Transana.

Analytic Data – The Transana Database:

Transana’s database stores all analytic information entered into Transana. It includes a copy of text-only data and all transcripts (including embedded images) of media files, but only file names for PDFs, stand-alone still image files, audio files, and video files. The database includes all organizational information, coding and categorization data, and all notes written in Transana.

In Transana Multiuser, the file containing this database information is stored on the project’s shared Transana Server. There are two common ways of setting up such a server.

• Projects can set up their own Transana server, usually in association with the university, institution, or organization heading the research project.  It is the responsibility of the IT staff who set up and maintain the project’s Transana Server to configure the server and database access correctly to protect the storage and transfer of project data.
• Projects can subscribe to the Transana Cloud Service to use a Transana Server set up and maintained by Transana.com.  We ensure the security of the server and of the data transmission.

Intermediary Files:

Transana creates intermediary files to accomplish certain analytic tasks.

• Transana extracts a low-quality copy of the audio from media files to create a waveform visualization. These files are stored on the user’s system in the configurable waveforms directory, which by default is within each user’s individual profile data storage location defined by the operating system.  Transana’s documentation and Tutorial recommend that users change their configuration so that the waveforms directory is shared as part of the project’s Media Library.
• Transana extracts audio from media files for the creation of automated transcripts when requested. A copy of this audio is stored within the user-configured waveforms directory.
• If the Faster Whisper tool is selected, the audio file is processed for automated transcription on the user’s computer and is not shared.
• If the Speechmatics tool is selected, the audio file is shared with Speechmatics.com and is subject to the privacy policy put in place by that company. The user must approve this data sharing every time the tool is used. This data is not shared with Transana.com.
• If the Deepgram tool is selected, the audio file is shared with Deepgram.com and is subject to the privacy policy put in place by that company. The user must approve this data sharing every time the tool is used. This data is not shared with Transana.com.