other contexts and replicated, as well as provide greater transparency regarding the use of public funds. The involvement of persons belonging to national minorities in the relevant data collection process should take place at all stages, including the methodology design and data analysis. This will help to ensure that the data collected is relevant and sensitive to the aspects of social and economic participation that especially affect national minorities and different individuals within minority communities. In turn, this involvement will increase transparency concerning the process of data collection and help to build trust among national minorities in the data collection process and subsequent results. Data collection, processing, storage and use should be carried out in accordance with international standards concerning respect for privacy and data protection, such as the lawfulness, fairness and transparency of personal data processing; data sovereignty; informed consent; purpose limitation; data minimization; storage limitation and privacy; and data protection by design and default.83 Both quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection can provide reliable evidence, and therefore States should not exclusively rely on statistical data. Sociological, ethnographic, linguistic and other research methods can provide additional and useful information and should complement quantitative methods and a national census. Data should be collected at regular and reasonably frequent intervals (for example, at intervals shorter than ten years), and at even shorter intervals when warranted; for example, following major societal changes or events, or following the introduction of special measures expected to have immediate impacts. 83 See: European Parliament and European Council, OJ L 116, Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of 27 April 2016 on “the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (General Data Protection Regulation)”. See also: OSCE HCNM, The Tallinn Guidelines on National Minorities and the Media in the Digital Age (Tallinn Guidelines), Guideline 10 (2019); the UN Principles and Recommendations for Population and Housing Censuses, Rev.3, 2017, ST/ESA/STAT/SER.M/67/Rev.3; CoE, Convention for the Protection of Individuals with regard to the Automatic Processing of Personal Data (ETS No. 108); CoE, Committee of Ministers’ Recommendation (97)18 “concerning the protection of personal data collected and processed for statistical purposes”; and CRPD, article 31. Recommendations on the Effective Participation of National Minorities in Social and Economic Life 37