Washington State Data Office: Privacy Protected Census Data it Sampled is “Unfit” to Use
"The majority of the data output from the DAS [disclosure avoidance system] appears to be unfit for most uses." Is how a letter to the Census Bureau's Disclosure Avoidance Team starts off. The letter, from the Washington State Office of Financial Management, which runs the state data center, sums up the results of the state's usability test of census data treated with a disclosure avoidance technique called "differential privacy," which introduces "statistical noise" into the dataset in order to maintain the privacy of individual data. Sampling the Technique: If you are unfamiliar with the technique you can read more about…
