Private Lives and Public Policies Confidentiality and Accessibility of Government Statistics (1993) / Chapter Skim
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4 Data Users
4 Data Users
Pages 91-108
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From page 91... ...
Finally, we examine the ethical and legal responsibilities of data users. At present, users' formal responsibilities extend almost entirely to the statistical agencies, but in a broader sense data users also have ethical and pragmatic responsibilities to data subjects and to society at large.
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From page 92... ...
In preparing data for unrestricted access, agencies may have to limit severely the amount of information included in statistical summaries or individual records in order to comply with requirements to preserve the confidentiality of individually identifiable information. Such limitations may
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From page 93... ...
EXPECTATIONS OF DATA USERS BACKGROUND Increasing Demands for Access Demand for access to federal statistical data increased at an extraordinary rate in the 1980s and will surely continue to do so in the 1990s. This demand has been fueled by the development of powerful, widely accessible computers and sophisticated analytic software, improved data transmission capability, the creation of large-~.caTe administrative data sets with numerical identifiers, and favorable user experience with public-use microdata sets based on statistical and administrative data collections.
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From page 94... ...
fellows program and other similar arrangements; in addition, some statistical units, like the National Agricultural Statistics Service and the Statistics of Income Division of the Internal Revenue Service, have made arrangements for researchers to use such data under controlled conditions in the unit's state or regional offices; · increased use of formal user licensing agreements by government agencies and nongovernment organizations that have developed important research data bases with federal funding these agreements provide for access, at the user's work site, to detailed microdata sets under controlled conditions; · initiation of the release, by the National Center for Education Statistics INCEST, of encrypted microdata files in CD-ROM format with built-in software for analysis this mode of release may permit more widespread dissemination of microdata sets that link survey and administrative data on persons; · the undertaking of research to explore the possibility of releasing microdata sets that do not contain data for any specific individual but would allow users to draw valid inferences from the data {see Chapter 6 and Rubin, 1993, for details) ; and · increased use of formal agreements for interagency sharing of identifiable data about persons for statistical and research purposes.
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From page 95... ...
· For many years, the National Center for Health Statistics {NCHSi user! a sampling frame based on address lists from the decennial census for its National Health Interview Survey [NHISl, a continuing national sample survey on health topics, for which the sample selection and field work are done by the Census Bureau.
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From page 96... ...
members from the Longitudinal Retirement History Survey, which had been conducted in the 1970s for the SSA by the Census Bureau under the authority of Title 13. Because of legal restrictions or other concerns about the confidentiality of the data requested, most federal statistical agencies, unlike the Census Bureau, do not systematically document cases in which they have denied data user requests or provided only part of the data requested.
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From page 97... ...
The Census Bureau, we unclerstand, has been considering an arrangement whereby outside advisors representing data subjects anc! ciata users wouIc!
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From page 98... ...
Another topic that is often discussed in such settings is the population size cutoff for the smallest geographic areas that can be identified for individual records in public-use microdata sets. The Census Bureau Towered its general cutoff from 250,000 to 100,000 in 1981, but some users would like to see it Towered further.
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From page 99... ...
Recommendation 4.1 Greater opportunities should be available for sharing of explicitly or potentially identifiable personal data among federal agencies for statistical and research purposes, provided the confidentiality of the records can be properly protected and the data cannot be used to make determinations about individual data subjects. Greater access should be permitted to key statistical and administrative data sets for the development of sampling frames and other statistical uses.
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From page 100... ...
Users who already know that certain data sets are not available are unlikely to make much effort to develop plans for analyses that would require access to such data. LEGAL AND ETHICAL RESPONSIBILITIES OF DATA USERS BAC KGROUND Legal Responsibi lities of Users Users given restricted access to personal data are asked and sometimes required by law or written contracts to comply with various conditions relating to their use ant]
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From page 101... ...
For releases of Census Bureau data, this is accomplished by having persons in the receiving agency who will have access to identifiable data take oaths as special sworn employees of the Census Bureau, which makes them subject to the same penalties as regular Census Bureau employees for any improper release or disclosure of identifiable information. The conditions associated with restricted access for end uses and the penalties for violations are much more varied, especially when the recipients of the data are not other federal agencies.
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From page 102... ...
All persons who will have access to the data must sign affidavits of nondisclosure and are subject to severe penalties for violation of their oath. Licensing agreements are also being used by university-based research organizations to allow restricted access to detailed microdata sets based on federally funclec1 surveys.
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From page 103... ...
Therefore, the undersigned gives the following assurances with respect to all NCHS data sets: . I will not use nor permit others to use the data in these sets in any way except for statistical reporting and analysis; · I will not release nor permit others to release the data sets or any part of them to any person who is not a member of this organization, except with the approval of NCHS; · I will not attempt to link nor permit others to attempt to link the data set with individually identifiable records from any other NCHS or non-NCHS data set.
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From page 104... ...
This brief account portrays some of the steps that have been taken in recent years to accommodate the needs of users for data sets that are too detailed to release without any conditions of use attached to them. The sentiment is growing among government statisticians that producers and users of statistical data should share responsibility for adherence to the confidentiality pledges given to data subjects and providers and that violations of that understanding by users, like violations by agency staff, should be subject to penalties.
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From page 105... ...
A recommendation to data collectors was to ensure that, whenever data are transferred to other persons or organizations, this transfer conforms with the established confidentiality pledges; and require written assurance from the recipients of the data that the measures employed to protect confidentiality will be at least equal to those originally pledged {American Statistical Association, 1989:241. Since the term "data" was not defined, this recommendation seems to suggest that no data, whether in aggregate or microdata form,
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From page 106... ...
FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS Secondary data users tend to be impatient with restrictions that inhibit access to data they want for their research, and they may occasionally attempt to circumvent such restrictions. The panel strongly urges all data users to recognize that the continued ability of fecleral statistical agencies to meet user needs depends on scrupulous observance of confidentiality pledges given to data subjects and data providers.
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From page 107... ...
The panel applauds the development of Tocal institutional mechanisms to promote ethical behavior in the research community and hopes that they will include fair statistical information practices and compliance with the data protection requirements of statistical agencies among their concerns.
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