Research Reports

New Implementations of Noise for Tabular Magnitude Data, Synthetic Tabular Frequency and Microdata, and a Remote Microdata Analysis System

Laura Zayatz

KEY WORDS: Disclosure Avoidance, Confidentiality, Public Use Data Products

ABSTRACT

The U.S. Census Bureau collects its survey and census data under Title 13 of the U.S. Code which promises confidentiality to its respondents. The agency also has the responsibility of releasing data for the purpose of statistical analysis. In common with most national statistical institutes, our goal is to release as much high quality data as possible without violating the pledge of confidentiality. We apply disclosure avoidance techniques prior to publicly releasing our data products to protect the confidentiality of our respondents and their data (Willenborg and de Waal, 2001). This paper discusses three areas of current disclosure avoidance research: noise for tabular magnitude data, synthetic tabular frequency and microdata, and a remote access system. It also discusses how the methods developed needed to be altered when we applied them to real data, and how they are currently being used on real data products.

CITATION:

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Statistical Research Division

Created: November 14, 2007
Last revised: November 14, 2007