ASSURED Training useful vocabulary

A Secure Processing Environment (SPE) is the specific technical "container" or physical room where the actual data processing happens. While a TRE is the broader framework, the SPE is the strict technical implementation—often involving air-gapped computers, disabled USB ports, or encrypted virtual machines that prevent data leakage.

Sensitive Data refers to any form of data that has the potential to cause harm to the Data Subjects if it is misused. Whilst usually such concerns relate to the possible impact upon people, for example by revealing private information about someone, there are other reasons why a dataset may be sensitive including for commercial or environmental reasons. 

ASSURED has been designed to be as discipline-agnostic as is possible, that is to say that many of the principles will be the same whether the harm is to a person, business, or rare species. We therefore prefer to use the term Sensitive Data, as data that requires protection may not be personal data.  

Sensitive Data in our context are microdata, containing information at the individual-level. Each row in such a dataset will represent a single observation, be it a person, a household, or a business. Microdata are typically obtained from surveys, censuses, or administrative systems.

In order to reduce the likelihood that descriptive statistics and frequency tables could reveal sensitive information about the Data Subjects, they should be based on a minimum number of observations.

This minimum number of observations is sometimes referred to as a 'Threshold Rule'.

A Trusted Research Environment (TRE) is a secure, cloud-based or server-based platform where researchers can analyse sensitive data without ever downloading the raw files to their own devices. The "trust" comes from a controlled environment where the data, the researchers, and the outputs are all verified.