As the world grapples with how best to share confidential data, there is a rising interest in synthetic data methods, which are used to protect confidentiality of microdata units.
privacy
State of the Data Infrastructure Series: Census Bureau
For the latest State of the Data Infrastructure feature, Count on Stats spoke with three experts about the US Census Bureau: Margo Anderson of the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, an expert on the history of the bureau and federal statistical system; Allison Plyer, chief demographer of The Data Center and recent chair of the bureau’s Scientific Advisory Committee; and Nancy Potok, most recently chief statistician of the US who, most notably, has also been deputy director and chief operating officer of the bureau and deputy undersecretary for economic affairs at the US Department of Commerce.
Claire McKay Bowen Talks Data Privacy
Claire McKay Bowen, author of Protecting Your Privacy in a Data-Driven World, talks about her book and ideas about data privacy in this interview.
Committee on Privacy and Confidentiality News for June 2021
Members of the ASA’s Committee on Privacy and Confidentiality will present at JSM 2021 and the 2021 World Statistics Congress.
Webinar: Privacy Risk and Preservation
Countries and regions around the world have developed and deployed COVID-19 contact tracing software or mobile apps. While contact tracing plays an important role in the pandemic, red flags have been raised regarding the privacy risk associated with the contact tracing apps and software. Tune in to this webinar hosted by ASA Committee on Privacy and Confidentiality as Fang Liu discusses the effectiveness of privacy-preserving measures.
ASA DataFest 2020: A Virtual Experience
The 2020 DataFest was held as a virtual data challenge in which students worked in teams to explore an impact of the COVID-19 global pandemic.
Social Statistics Section Plans Privacy Discussions
The Social Statistics Section will host a JSM 2020 invited session and an associated roundtable about how differential privacy is applied to various 2020 Census data products to help protect the privacy of individuals and what that means for formal privacy.
Privacy Day Webinar 2020: A Summary
On January 28, a webinar sponsored by the ASA Privacy and Confidentiality Committee was presented by Michael Hawes, senior adviser for the Data Access and Privacy, Research, and Methodology Directorate of the US Census Bureau, titled “Differential Privacy and the 2020 Decennial Census.”
Claire McKay Bowen
Claire McKay Bowen was raised on a small farm in Idaho, where she was encouraged to explore and question the world around her. Eventually, she pursued a degree in mathematics and physics, but what intrigued her most in the research projects was statistical analysis and how it was applied to solve real-world problems. She received several fellowships and the Gertrude Cox Women’s Scholarship, going on to earn a doctorate in statistics. She is now the lead data scientist for privacy and data security at the Urban Institute.
Summary of JSM 2019 Session on Formal Privacy: Making an Impact at Large Organizations
The Committee on Privacy and Confidentiality organized a JSM session that featured four experts who have implemented formal privacy models or variants of differential privacy.