Researching Formal Privacy for the Census Bureau's County Business Patterns Program

Please note that the information on this page is no longer current. The Census Bureau is evaluating alternative approaches to comply with the U.S. Department of Commerce’s administrative order prohibiting the use of noise infusion. Updated guidance will be provided once new plans are finalized.

Description

This webinar provides a high-level overview of a novel formal privacy framework, called per-record differential privacy (PRDP), that can be applied to business populations with highly skewed data. The research team, comprised of staff from the Census Bureau and Tumult Labs, has focused its initial work on the Census Bureau's County Business Patterns data product and have released the first demonstration table for public consumption.

This presentation will include the benefits and limitations of PRDP, its privacy guarantees, the determination and allocation of the privacy loss budget, as well as an overview of the demonstration table.

Webinar Materials

Page Last Revised - June 18, 2026