Report on Statistical Disclosure Limitation Methodology

摘要

Federal agencies and their contractors who release statistical tables or microdata files are often required by law or established policies to protect the confidentiality of individual information. This confidentiality requirement applies to releases of data to the general public; it can also apply to releases to other agencies or even to other units within the same agency. The Subcommittee's goals in preparing the report were to: update a predecessor subcommittee's report on the same topic (Federal Committee on Statistical Methodology, 1978); describe and evaluate existing disclosure limitation methods for tables and microdata files; provide recommendations and guidelines for the selection and use of effective disclosure limitation techniques; encourage the development, sharing and use of software for the applications of disclosure limitation methods; and encourage research to develop improved statistical disclosure limitation methods, especially for public-use microdata files.