Confidentiality in an era of big data official statistics perspective

摘要

This paper looks at some of the ethical challenges that Big Data and data linking present for official statistics, reviews some of the international initiatives in train, focusing on recent developments in the UK. It emphasises the importance of confidentiality in maintaining trust in official statistics, arguing that, although the ethical issues are everywhere acknowledged as important, the debate on this is still at an early stage, and needs to be pursued.