The availability of sensitive information increases from the download version of a scientific-use file to the remote version to the on-site version. For example, the dataset with information about the respective educational institutions (pInstitution) is only available in the protected server environment of RemoteNEPS and On-site. The same applies to the variables on state affiliation in the  school and university cohorts, which are also subject to special regulations regarding their use (PDF-de).

For better orientation, all three data versions - Download, RemoteNEPS, On-site - contain the complete set of variables; anonymized variables are filled with a special missing code in the respective data version and identified by a suffix in the variable name. In addition, a report describing the anonymization procedures performed and listing the variables affected can be found in the documentation materials section for each scientific use file.

* In agreement with the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the states in the Federal Republic of Germany, the federal state identification within the school and (technical) college starting cohorts has been accessible for certain analysis purposes via "RemoteNEPS" and "On-site" since 2015 (see LIfBi procedure description and NEPS data use contract).