Outline two ethical considerations in sport research related to participants' data privacy and consent.

• A. Consent must be informed; data confidentiality; proper use of data; secure storage.
• B. Consent is not necessary for data collection.
• C. Informed consent is optional for anonymized data.
• D. Data can be shared publicly without restrictions.

Answer: (C)

In sport research, you must respect participants’ rights by two main means: obtaining informed consent and protecting data privacy. Informed consent means participants know what data will be collected, how it will be used, who will see it, and that they can withdraw. Data privacy means handling information confidentially, storing it securely, and using it only for the agreed purpose. Anonymizing data—removing identifiers—lowers the risk of someone being identified, which can sometimes allow the use of the data without explicit consent under proper ethical oversight. This nuance is why the idea that consent can be optional for anonymized data is considered plausible in certain contexts: when data are truly de-identified and cannot be traced back to individuals, and when ethics approvals and safeguards are in place, consent requirements can be waived in practice. The overarching point is that consent and privacy are intertwined, and any use of data must balance minimizing harm with respecting participants’ autonomy; the other options conflict with these ethical protections by suggesting consent isn’t needed or that data can be shared publicly without restrictions.