Privacy and Confidentiality Views Toward Surveys Collected in the Era of COVID-19

• Activity Number: 399 - Collecting, Protecting, and Sharing COVID-19 Data and the Stories They Tell
• Type: Invited
• Date/Time: Thursday, August 12, 2021 : 2:00 PM to 3:50 PM
• Sponsor: Government Statistics Section
• Author(s): Jennifer Hunter Childs* and Aleia Clark Fobia and Casey Eggleston and Yazmin Garcia Trejo and Shaun S. Genter
• Companies: US Census Bureau and US Census Bureau and US Census Bureau and US Census Bureau and U.S. Census Bureau
• Keywords: privacy; confidentiality; trust; covid-19; public opinion

Abstract

Survey data collection from three different sources surrounding the 2020 Census provided a unique opportunity for an in-depth look at privacy and confidentiality views during the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2020 Census Privacy and Confidentiality Study, a mailout survey with phone and in-person follow-up, specifically examined privacy and confidentiality views toward the census. The 2020 Census Tracking Survey, a dual RDD-probability and non-probability-web survey, collected data on views towards personal visit interviews during the pandemic, among other topics. Finally, the National Privacy Concerns Survey, an online survey sampled from an address-based, probability-based frame, focused on how concerned respondents were about the privacy of individual items on the census. Through these separate data collection activities, we are able to glean insight into what types of data are more sensitive for respondents, how they value the exchange between privacy and social benefits of data, and opinions on potential data collection methods.

Looking across these diverse sets of data, we draw some conclusions on privacy and confidentiality views of surveys in the era of COVID-19.