Differential Privacy Press Kit

July 14, 2021

The U.S. Census Bureau is enhancing and strengthening how we protect people’s privacy when they respond to surveys and censuses.

The Census Bureau is modernizing privacy protections so we can defend against new threats, not just now, but into the future using a mathematical framework called “differential privacy”.

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News Products

Press Release | April 28, 2021

Census Bureau Releases Latest Privacy Protection Demonstration Data

The Census Bureau released a new set of “demonstration data” to help the data user community evaluate the latest update to the new Disclosure Avoidance System.

Press Release | September 16, 2021

Invitation for Feedback on Proposed 2020 Census Data Products

Today, the U.S. Census Bureau released an updated 2020 Census Data Product Planning Crosswalk.

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Videos

Protecting Privacy in Census Bureau Statistics

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Protecting Privacy with MATH

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Webpage

Disclosure Avoidance Modernization

All 2020 Census data products (with the exception of the apportionment data) will be protected with a new, modernized disclosure avoidance system.

Understanding Differential Privacy

Why we're modernizing protections – and how differential privacy works.

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Newsletters

DAS Production Parameters Metrics

Census Sets Key Parameters to Protect Privacy in 2020 Census Results

Research on Alternatives to Differential Privacy

Assessing the Reliability and Variability of the TopDown Algorithm

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Other Resources

Fact Sheet | August 12, 2021

Protecting the Confidentiality of 2020 Census Redistricting Data

By law, we must ensure that we don’t release information that could identify your information in the statistics we publish.

Fact Sheet | August 12, 2021

Comparing Differential Privacy With Older Disclosure Avoidance Methods

Differential privacy, first developed in 2006, is a framework for measuring the precise disclosure risk associated with each release of confidential data.

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Blogs

Random Samplings Blog | April 28, 2021 | DR. JOHN M. ABOWD, CHIEF SCIENTIST AND ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR FOR RESEARCH AND METHODOLOGY AND DR. VICTORIA A. VELKOFF, ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR FOR DEMOGRAPHIC PROGRAMS

Modernizing Privacy Protections for the 2020 Census: Next Steps

The world has evolved quite a bit since 1990, the last time we changed the way we protect individual responses in published census statistics.

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