census.gov Notification
Due to the lapse of federal funding, portions of this website are not being updated. Any inquiries submitted via www.census.gov will not be answered until appropriations are enacted.

Producing Public-Use Microdata That Are Analytically Valid And Confidential

Written by:
Working Paper Number: RR98-02

Introduction

A public-use microdata file should be analytically valid. For a very small number of uses, the microdata should yield analytic results that are approximately the same as the original, confidential file that is not distributed. If the microdata file contains a moderate number of variables and is required to meet a single set of analytic needs of, say, university researchers, then many more records are likely to be re-identified via modern record linkage methods than via the re-identification methods typically used in the confidentiality literature. This paper compares several masking methods in terms of their ability to produce analytically valid, confidential microdata.

Related Information


Page Last Revised - October 28, 2021