Who we are

You are invited to participate in the MOMENT-GPS study. Your participation is voluntary: you are not obliged to participate and there will be no negative consequences for you if you refuse. Take your time to decide whether or not you wish to participate. If anything is unclear, feel free to contact the researcher or supervisor at any time. You can cancel your participation at any time (in writing or verbally) without having to give a reason.

Below, you will find more information about the study and how it will be carried out in practice. For additional information, do not hesitate to contact the researcher or his/her supervisor.  

Contact details of researcher(s) and supervisor

  • Researcher
  • Petrus TE BRAAK
  • Department of Sociology
  • Vrije Universiteit Brussel
  • E-mail: ptebraak@vub.be
  • Phone number: +32 2 614 83 21
  • Supervisor
  • Theun Pieter VAN TIENOVEN
  • Department of Sociology
  • Vrije Universiteit Brussel
  • E-mail: t.p.van.tienoven@vub.be

Purpose of the study

The MOMENT-GPS study focuses on investigating people’s sense of security in the Brussels Capital Region (BCR), and – in the case of this sub-study – on the VUB campus. The study aims to gain insight into the various factors affecting the sense of security, to understand their causes and consequences, and to identify which places on campus are considered safe or unsafe. To this end, participants will be given a short questionnaire based on time and GPS coordinates, in which they share their experiences, safety perceptions and strategies. By participating in this study, you will contribute to a deeper understanding of and possible solutions to feelings of insecurity in the BCR and on campus.

Data controller

The VUB (Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, 1050 Brussels, CBE 449.012.406) will act as the controller of your data. 

Participation conditions

In order to participate in the study, you must be at least 18 years of age and be present on a VUB campus at least once per academic year. 

Study procedures and completion of the questionnaire 

To participate in the study, you need to install the MOMENT app, which can be found in the Google Play Store and Apple App Store. Detailed information on the study’s privacy statement can be found at https://www.moment.brussels/privacy. After installing the app, you can register with an e-mail address and log in with that e-mail address and a password of your choice. After giving your consent in the app, you can complete an initial questionnaire about your personal details, your connection with the VUB and previous experiences of insecurity. After you have registered, the main part of the study begins. Depending on specific GPS locations and times, participants will receive invitations to complete short questionnaires about their safety perception and factors contributing to that perception at their current location. To make this possible, you will be asked to give the app access to your GPS location. When the MOMENT app detects a location defined by the researchers at a time defined by the researchers, the short questionnaire will be activated. You then have a certain amount of time to complete the questionnaire (e.g. one hour). The number of questionnaires in this phase depends on the location and time of day.

Potential risks and inconveniences – measures taken to mitigate them

Participation in the study may bring up feelings of anger, frustration, shame and/or confusion in some participants. The sense of security is a sensitive issue because it is based on perceived threats or actual experiences of harassment or other forms of violence. Incidents often go unreported or are dismissed as trivial, which can intensify feelings of shame or self-blame. While it is expected that such reactions during the study will be exceptions rather than the rule, it is acknowledged that they may occur during the study, especially among participants who have experienced such situations. Therefore, participants are informed that they are free to stop participation or skip specific questions at any time. If necessary, participants will be referred to professional counselling.

Benefits 

The direct personal benefits of participation are mainly to do with experiencing empowerment by actively contributing to promoting safety on the VUB campus. From a social perspective, however, the implications are much broader and deeper. Comparative research shows that both Brussels and Belgium score badly in terms of women’s perception of safety in public spaces. This study aims to understand the causes of this negative perception and to identify ways to optimise safety. Through your active contribution, you will provide valuable insights from your own perception of security on the VUB campus. This knowledge will be used by policymakers and academics to improve safety conditions on campus. Moreover, this study will draw media attention to the issue of security on and around the VUB campus. 

Privacy and confidentiality 

We will treat collected data confidentially and comply with privacy laws, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This means we undertake never to reveal your name or other data that could identify you, for example in the context of a publication or conference. Also, individual results will never be published. 

Secondly, personal data will be collected about/from you during this study. The collection and processing of your data are possible because we will be conducting scientific research and will obtain your explicit consent to such collection and processing.

Data collection and processing will be done in accordance with the legal principles imposed by the new European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), in force since 25 May 2018. We [Petrus TE BRAAK and Theun Pieter VAN TIENOVEN] will oversee the correct processing of your personal data and compliance with the associated information obligation. 

Data – Purpose – Retention period – Transfer

For this study, we will collect the following personal data: your name, age, gender, e-mail address, the municipality where you live, and your presence at a specific geolocation (only your arrival at this location is recorded; your further movements are not collected). 

In addition to ordinary personal data, ‘special categories‘ (GDPR Art. 9 & 10) of personal data are also collected, in particular:

  • Your racial or ethnic background;
  • Your sexual preference or orientation;
  • Your health condition.
  • Your personal data will only be processed for scientific purposes.

The data will be collected and processed for the purpose of the above study. In accordance with relevant legislation, data collected as part of the study will be kept for 10 years.

The data could potentially be reused for secondary analyses or research that was not originally planned, including analysing trends over time, or comparing data with those for other off-campus spaces. 

Your data will be viewed only by the researcher(s) named above and other researchers affiliated with the Department of Sociology at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and will not be shared with other institutions. 

Security

To ensure your privacy, the following protective measures will be taken: 

  • In the first phase, the data collected are not anonymous; they will therefore be converted to codes (pseudonymisation) as soon as possible after the fieldwork ends and before the analyses are conducted. This will create a second dataset in which your direct identification is no longer possible. A ‘translation key’ will therefore be created that can convert the codes back to their original meaning. Only the researcher and his supervisor (Petrus TE BRAAK and Theun Pieter VAN TIENOVEN) will have access to this key and thus to the non-anonymised data. This ensures that only the researcher and supervisor can link these data to you as an individual. The key will be stored separately and securely or destroyed.
  • In the first phase, the data collected are not anonymous; they will therefore be pseudonymised as soon as possible and anonymised after the fieldwork and the analyses have been conducted. Once the data have been processed completely anonymously, GDPR no longer applies. 
  • Your data will only be stored on a VUB SharePoint, with strict access control and a high degree of protection. They will never be stored on the personal computer or a USB stick of the researcher(s) (except when the data are kept encrypted on a USB stick), and will never be sent by e-mail.  

Your rights

You have the right to access and correct your data. You also have the right to have your data erased, to restrict their processing, to request a copy of your data, to object to the processing and to transfer your data to third parties. If you have any questions, please contact the researchers.

You have the right to withdraw your consent to the processing of your data at any time. The withdrawal of consent does not affect the lawfulness of the processing of data before the withdrawal of consent. 

Contact

If you have any questions, or wish to exercise your rights, please contact the researcher (Petrus TE BRAAK, e-mail: ptebraak@vub.be, tel.: +32 2 614 83 21), the supervisor (Theun Pieter VAN TIENOVEN, e-mail: t.p.van.tienoven@vub.be) or the data protection officer at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (e-mail: dpo@vub.be). 

Complaints

If you wish to file a complaint about the way we handle your data, please contact the researcher, supervisor or data protection officer (see contact details above). 

You can also file a complaint with the Belgian supervisory authority responsible for enforcing data protection legislation:

Data Protection Authority

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