Official Statistics and Confidentiality

Maura Bardos

Outline

Overview of the Federal Statistical System› Agencies› Types of survey data collected

Challenges› Statistical Disclosure and confidentiality› Implications

Federal Statistical System

Headed by a Chief Statistician Decentralized System in the United

States› 13 Agencies with a statistics oriented

mission› Statistical Agencies are located throughout

various agencies in the Federal Government Examples: Census (Commerce Department),

Energy Information Administration (Department of Energy), Bureau of Labor Statistics (Department of Labor)

Data

Where do the numbers come from? Survey data

Regulations by OMB› Response rates› Legal obligations› Confidentiality

Confidentiality

Confidential Information Protection and Statistical Efficiency Act of 2002(CIPSEA)- places the onus on federal employees to limit disclosure› Took over 4 years to implement (Anderson and Seltzer)

3 ways to reduce within agencies: › 1) Limiting identifiability of survey materials

within the organization› 2) restricting access to data› 3) restricting the contents that may be

released

Statistical Disclosure and Confidentiality

Statistical Disclosure- “the identification of an individual (or of an attribute) through the matching of survey data with information available outside of the survey” (Groves, et.al)

The federal government identifies three different types of disclosure: › Identity: inappropriate attribution of information to a data

subject, whether an individual or an organization.› Attribute: data subject is identified from a released file

sensitive information about a data subject is revealed through the released file

› Inferential: the released data make it possible to determine the value of some characteristic of an individual more accurately than otherwise would have been possible (FCSM)

Example

Challenges

Need to provide information› FOIA requests, Subpoenas

Satisfy requests for multiple clients. Must keep track of all withheld information

Maintain utility of data while preserving confidentiality

“Programming nightmare” to keep track of the relationship between variables, tables, and hierarchy

How To Prevent

Specific Strategies Data Swapping Noise Combining Cells Rounding Cell Suppression

Strategy: Data Swapping

Exchange of reported data values across data records (Fienberg, Steele, Makov, 1996)

Strategy: Swapping

Select 10%

Number Child County

HH Edu. HH Income

Race Sex

4Pete Alpha High 61W M

Alfonso Beta Very High 61W M

Number Child County HH Edu HH Income

Race Sex

4 Alfonso Alpha Very High

61 W M

Strategy: Swapping

Strategy: Noise Assign a multiplying factor, or noise factor

to all data› For example: the value of a randomly

generated variable might be added to each value in a dataset

“protect individual establishments without compromising the quality of our estimates”

Pro: More data can be published, less complicated, less time consuming

Problem: perturbing ALL data, non-sensitive and sensitive alike

Strategy: Noise

How is this done: Use Multipliers› The standard is to perturb data by about 10%› Use multipliers ranging from .9 to 1.1› Must preserve trend in data- otherwise useless

for client’s analysis› Use distributions to control variance

(examples)

Strategy: Noise

Example: Table with and without Noise

Tables Before Tabulation Strategies: Data Swapping;

Data Perturbation (Noise) Tables of Frequencies

› Percent of population with certain characteristics› With outside knowledge- respondents with unique

characteristics can be identified› Sensitive information: identified by threshold

Tables of magnitude data› Aggregate data, such as income of individuals,

revenues of companies› Extreme values› Sensitive information: identified by linear sensitivity

measure

Strategy: Recoding Methods

Changing to values of outlier cases, since outliers are more likely to be sample or population uniques

Top coding- taking the largest values on a variable and giving them the same code value in dataset› For example- place all companies

producing more than 100,000 barrels of oil per day in one category

Non-uniques are unperturbed

Example of DisclosureHow do we fix this?

Example Cont. Collapsing of categories

Strategy: Rounding

Similar to noise. Cells are rounded, random decision is made whether to round up or down› Example: x -r = 5q

Round values to the a multiple of 5 Where q = non negative integer

r = remainder X = cell value,

Rounded up, 5 x (q+1) probability of r/5Rounded down, 5 x q probability of (1-r/5)

Original Table

Example: Rounding

Strategy: Rounding, now with constraints

How to identify cells with disclosure risks for magnitude data

n-k rule p% rule

P-Percent rule If upper or lower estimates for the

respondent’s value are closer to the reported value than some prespecified percentage (p) of the total cell value, the cell is sensitive (Groves, 372).

Assumptions: Any respondent can estimate the contribution of another respondent within 100% of its value

The second largest responded can use their reported value and attempt to estimate the largest reported value, X1

P Percent Rule

A cell is sensitive if:

S>0where S = x1 - 100/p * (T – x2 -

x1)

For a given cell with N respondents, arrange the data in order from large to small: X1>X2>…>Xn>0

Example

Consider the cell 18,177.

N=3; X1 = 17,000; X2 = 1,000; X3 = 177; p=15

(n, k) Rule If a small number (n) of the respondents contribute a large

percentage (k) to the total cell value then the cell is sensitive (Groves 372)

Example We are publishing production data of how

many barrels a day of crude oil each refinery produces. This is secret information. If our competitors found out, it could be detrimental to our business.

There are 4 collectors in the state with collections of 100, 50, 25, and 5 respectively

Find out if this information should be released or not using the n-k rule with (2, 85). The P Percent rule (p=35%)?

Using the P Percent rule, this cell is sensitive. However, it is not sensitive by the n-k rule

Relationship between n-k and p% rule

System of equations:P%: Z2 > 100 – 1.35Z1(n,k): Z2 > 85 – Z1

Variable ConstraintsZ2 < Z1Z1 + Z2 < 100

Relationship between n-k and p% rule

(55.56, 27.27)

Strategy: Sensitive Cell Suppression

Primary Suppressions: The sensitive Cell Complementary/Secondary Suppressions:

Additional withheld data to ensure that the primary suppressions cannot be derived by linear combination

Goal: Minimize information lost. This is accomplished by selecting smallest possible cell values for complementary cell suppression

Problem: Often requires a substantial amount of data to be withheld. Potential for errors may lead to the release of confidential data

Strategy: Sensitive Cell Suppression

Small Tables:› Manual suppression› Computerized audit procedures

Large Tables:› Much more complex, especially with

related tables and hierarchical data› Consistency

Real Example: Disclosure

Cell Suppression Example Let’s return to a previous example:

Sales Revenue We determined that we must the cell

must be suppressed. How do we accomplish this?

Example of a Solution

Conclusion: Data is secure

High levels of security and suppression protect data are necessary as data guides real life policy issues.

Quality of this data is dependent on not only a high response rate, but accurate responses

Producing data is a function of “public trust” However, the point of data collection is its

use and analysis. The tradeoff between confidentiality and utilization must be examined

…Or is it?

Patriot Act 2001 (Anderson & Seltzer) Section 508: Disclosure information from

National Center for Education Statistics Surveys

Justice Department is able to obtain and use for investigation and prosecution reports, records, and information (including individually identifiable information)

The Patriot Act overrides the 1994 National Center for Education Statistics Act that protections confidentiality

Other examples from history

Second War Powers Act (1942-1947) Repealed confidentiality protects of Title 13

governing the US Census Bureau (Anderson & Seltzer)

Japanese Americans and Internment camps (USA Today)

2004 data on Arab-Americans (NYT)› Released number of Arab-Americans per

zip code› Categorized by country of origin: Egyptian,

Iraqi, Jordanian, Lebanese, Moroccan, Palestinian, Syrian and two general categories, "Arab/Arabic" and "Other Arab."

› Data obtained from a sample (the long form of the census)

In conclusion…

…the next time you fill out a survey, think about where your information may (or may not) be used.

Sources Clemetson, Lynette. “Homeland Secuirty given data on Arab-

Americans.” New York Times. July 30, 2004. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/30/politics/30census.html

El Nasser, Haya. “Papers show Census role in WWII Camps.” USA Today. March 30, 2007. http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-03-30-census-role_N.htm

“DoD releases FY 2010 Budget Proposal.” US Department of Defense. May 7, 2009. http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=12652

Seltzer, William and Margo Anderson. “NCES and the Patriot Act.” Paper prepared for the Joint Statistical Meetings. 2002. http://www.uwm.edu/~margo/govstat/jsm.pdf

Evans, Timothy, Laura Zayatz, and John Slanta. “Using Noise for Disclosure Limitation of Establishment Tabular Data.” US Census Bureau. 1996. http://www.census.gov/prod/2/gen/96arc/iiaevans.pdf

“Statistical Programs of the US Government.” Office of Management and Budget. 2009. http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/assets/information_and_regulatory_affairs/09statprog.pdf

Sources of examples

Sullivan, Colleen. “An Overview of Disclosure Principles.” US Census Bureau. 1992. http://www.2010census.biz/srd/papers/pdf/rr92-09.pdf

“Statistical Policy Working Paper: Report on Statistical Disclosure Methodology.” Federal Committee on Statistical Methodology. 2005. http://www.fcsm.gov/working-papers/SPWP22_rev.pdf

Groves, Robert et. al. Survey Methodology. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. 2004.

Additional Resources

http://jpc.cylab.cmu.edu/journal/2009/vol01/issue01/issue01.pdf

http://www.census.gov/srd/sdc/papers.html

http://www.census.gov/srd/sdc/abowd-woodcock2001-appendix-only.pdf