At what point does the sacrifice to our personal information outweigh the public good?
If public policymakers had access to our personal and confidential data, they could make more evidence-based, data-informed decisions that could accelerate economic recovery and improve COVID-19 vaccine distribution. However, access to personal data comes at a steep privacy cost for contributors, especially underrepresented groups.
Protecting Your Privacy in a Data-Driven World is a practical, nontechnical guide that explains the importance of balancing these competing needs and calls for careful consideration of how data are collected and disseminated by our government and the private sector. Not addressing these concerns can harm the same communities policymakers are trying to protect through data privacy and confidentiality legislation.
This book is part of the American Statistical Association-CRC Series on Statistical Reasoning in Science and Society.
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Praise for Protecting Your Privacy in a Data-Driven World
Staffers and non-technical policy/think-tank researchers need this book. Also data users, like state demographers or public health officials, who need to understand how their data are affected by privacy preserving approaches, but who do not need to know the technical details.
Amy O’Hara, PhD
Director of the Georgetown Federal Statistical Research Data Center | Massive Data Institute, Georgetown University
I worked in the Federal Statistical system for several years on the analysis and dissemination of household survey data, preparation of public uses files, and the submission of requests to the Disclosure Review Board. Even with my experience, I found the book fascinating, comprehensive, and valuable for developing a foundation to understand traditional and emerging data privacy issues
Stephanie Shipp, PhD
Deputy Division Director | Biocomplexity Institute, University of Virginia
The author introduces traditional data privacy techniques, such as data suppression, top-and bottom-coding and categorical thresholding, as well as modern approaches, most notably differential privacy, at a high, non-technical level. This is done in a clear and accessible way, making the book a good resource for the layperson or as a first glimpse into the complex world of data privacy. Readers with technical backgrounds may still find some of the chapters quite enlightening. I especially appreciated the discussion of issues surrounding the process of releasing personal data in the real world. … In conclusion, Claire McKay Bowen has written a valuable introduction to the increasingly important area of data privacy. – [From a review in the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A (Statistics in Society)]
Stefan Stein, PhD
Data Scientist | CrowdStrike
I’m reading Claire McKay Bowen’s excellent book Protecting Your Privacy in a Data Driven World about balancing the data needs of policymakers with the privacy needs of those reflected in data. The book is an approachable overview of how to think about the tradeoffs between data access and privacy (And great for people without a deep background in stats 🙋🏻♂️). [From Frank’s blog, “Privacy and neighborhood data”.]
Frank Muraca
Analyst | UNC School of Government’s Development Finance Initiative
If you’re looking for a concise, approachable (and even fun) primer on data privacy methods, regulations, and policy issues, Claire Bowen, wrote a great book for you. Highly recommend. [Original Tweet]
Oliver Wise
Chief Data Officer | Department of Commerce
Dr. Bowen’s book is the most approachable and best explanation of privacy concerns and methods that I have read so far. Dr. Bowen’s book will be an important resource for me as I learn to work with new Census Bureau privacy methods and communicate these changes to state and local users of demographic data.
Michael Cline, PhD
State Demographer | Demographic and Economic Analysis Section NC Office of State Budget and Management
What does the book cover?
The book addresses data privacy’s importance (Chapter 1), history and evolution of privacy protection (chapter 2), the ways privacy experts develop privacy preserving methods (chapters 3 and 4), these methods’ limitations (chapter 5), the privacy laws governing and protecting people’s information (chapter 6), and other important issues we as society must consider to keep advancing the field of data privacy (chapter 7).
Below is the Table of Contents.
- Preface
- Author Bio
- Chapter 1: Why Is Data Privacy Important?
- What is data privacy?
- Why should anyone care?
- Why is balancing data privacy and utility hard?
- Why is there inequality in privacy?
- What will be covered in this book?
- Chapter 2: How Did Data Privacy Change Over Time?
- How did data privacy begin for the United States Census Bureau?
- How did Title 13 become law?
- What are other United States laws that regulate federal statistics?
- Chapter 3: How Do Data Privacy Methods Expand Access to Data?
- What are the past and current disclosure control methods?
- What are other ways to access data?
- Why are new disclosure control methods still being developed?
- Chapter 4: How Do Data Privacy Methods Avoid Invalidating Results?
- How is data privacy defined?
- What is an acceptable privacy-loss limit?
- How is data quality ensured?
- Why is balancing data privacy and utility still hard?
- What is the data privacy framework?
- To post-process or not to post-process?
- Chapter 5: What Makes Datasets Difficult for Data Privacy?
- Why does contract tracing cost privacy?
- Why does memory fade over time but privacy does not?
- Why are personal relationships complicated?
- How can rural America disappear?
- Chapter 6: What Data Privacy Laws Exist?
- What is the General Data Protection Regulation?
- What are the Challenges for the General Data Protection Regulation?
- What data privacy laws exist in the United States?
- What are the challenges for future United States data privacy laws?
- Chapter 7: What Is the Future of Data Privacy?
- Why are there not enough use cases?
- Why use a tiered system to access data?
- What can be done to address the inequality in data privacy?
- What data privacy resources are needed?
- Glossary
- Bibliography
- Index