Privacy in Practice: Latest Achievements of the Eustat SDC Group

Abstract

Maintaining the privacy of the data providers, preserving the confidentiality of the information they provide and its use only for statistical purposes must be fully guaranteed within the statistical activity. This principle largely underpins the credibility of a statistical organization and must be present in all phases of statistical production [2]. Since 1998, research work has been carried out in this field at Eustat: the provision of a scholarship for the study of the most common techniques [3] for protecting microdata files and statistical tables, the application of specific protection measures to real data, the establishment of standard criteria for the protection of statistical information and the widespread dissemination of microdata. In 2018, an expert group was created at Eustat that coordinates and promotes all these tasks within the Organisation. This paper collects the main works and results obtained by the group over these latest five years. Firstly, the preparation and updating of the criteria document on confidentiality and data protection in statistical dissemination is described. The aim is to provide the staff with a guide to basic confidentiality criteria when preparing statistical products for dissemination. Next, the type of analysis that is carried out to prepare secure microdata for dissemination (public use files) is shown. As an example, the analysis carried out for the microdata of the Population Survey in Relation to Activity (PRA) is included. Finally, a solution for the automatic protection of statistical tables by τ-Argus [5] using a SAS macro is presented. Specifically, the application to tables of the Directory of Economic Activities of Eustat is shown.