Abstract :
Until quite recently, many psychologists believed themselves ethically bound to fall on their
swords before releasing raw test data to anyone but another qualified professional. Under the
American Psychological Association Ethics Code (2002), consistent with the Health Insurance
Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 Privacy Rule of 2002 (U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services, 2002), test materials may still be protected, but documents containing
participants’responses are ordinarily subject to disclosure. Although many may lament the cost
to test security, the virtues of secrecy regarding testing are often exaggerated and its vices underestimated.
Several measures, including appropriate informed consent, sensitive and detailed
test feedback, offers of suitable alternatives to raw test data, copyright notices, and the use of
protective orders and supervised inspection in forensic matters can still be used to maintain a
reasonable degree of test security
