The Missing History of the Disclosure of Individual Responses in the American Census: What Happened and Why It Matters Now

Margo Anderson, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

The presentation traces the history of the statutory language barring census staff from disclosing or publishing information about an individual respondent, either a person or business. Contrary to popular understanding, the language is not designed to “protect respondent privacy.” Rather it defines the responsibilities of staff to prevent inadvertent or intentional release of any information that could be used to “harm” or be to the “detriment” on the respondent. It also mandates that staff produce relevant statistical tabulations for public policy use. It does not bar an “outside attacker” from trying to identify an individual respondent for harm in a public statistical data release. By way of contrast, the European Union’s General Purpose Data Regulation [GDPR] extends the responsibility to protect respondents from harm to users as well as data producers. EU nations administer sanctions on violators.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 181. Round Table, Data Confidentiality, Respondent Trust: 21st Century Issues