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      When Excessive Perturbation Goes Wrong and Why IPUMS-International Relies Instead on Sampling, Suppression, Swapping, and Other Minimally Harmful Methods to Protect Privacy of Census Microdata

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          Abstract

          IPUMS-International disseminates population census microdata at no cost for 69 countries. Currently, a series of 212 samples totaling almost a half billion person records are available to researchers. Registration is required for researchers to gain access to the microdata. Statistics from Google Analytics show that IPUMS-International’s lengthy, probing registration form is an effective deterrent for unqualified applicants. To protect data privacy, we rely principally on sampling, suppression of geographic detail, swapping of records across geographic boundaries, and other minimally harmful methods such as top and bottom coding. We do not use excessively perturbative methods. A recent case of perturbation gone wrong— the household samples of the 2000 census of the USA (PUMS), the 2003–2006 American Community Survey, and the 2004–2009 Current Population Survey—, an empirical study of the impact of perturbation on the usability of UK census microdata—the Individual SARs of the 1991 census of the UK—, and a mathematical demonstration in a timely compendium of statistical confidentiality practices confirm the wisdom of IPUMS microdata management protocols and statistical disclosure controls.

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          Author and article information

          Journal
          101743592
          48460
          Priv Stat Databases
          Privacy in statistical databases. PSD (Conference : 2004-)
          31 July 2016
          September 2012
          06 April 2017
          : 7556
          : 179-187
          Affiliations
          Minnesota Population Center, 50 Willey Hall, Minneapolis MN 55455 USA
          Article
          PMC5382996 PMC5382996 5382996 nihpa805560
          10.1007/978-3-642-33627-0_14
          5382996
          28393150
          2c9bb67c-1b68-41fb-9328-a68ee9b09547
          History
          Categories
          Article

          IPUMS-International,population census,statistical disclosure controls,data dissemination,data privacy,microdata samples

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