Certificates of Confidentiality can provide important legal protections to researchers who work in potentially sensitive areas. These certificates allow research teams to decline to provide sensitive information in response to certain legal requests, such as subpoenas. The process for obtaining a certificate of confidentiality involves submitting an application to the federal government. However, NIH recently announced that it will soon automatically issue certificates of confidentiality for NIH supported research. Once this practice is established, researchers will have one less bit of bureaucracy to wade through, and IRB reviewers will know at a glance whether a certificate of confidentiality is available for a project.