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Program is Subject to Change

Wednesday, June 16
Wed, Jun 16, 1:30 PM - 3:30 PM
TBD
Statistical Confidentiality and Establishment Surveys: Challenges and Solutions to Improving Data Utility

Data Protection Toolkit’s Playbook as Demonstrated Through the PIAAC Prison Study (308019)

*Tom Krenzke, Westat 
Jianzhu Li, Westat 

Keywords: statistical disclosure control, establishment, risk assessment

This presentation will demonstrate the Data Protection Toolkit’s Playbook, which is a general operational framework for protecting confidential data in Federal agencies. It includes a step-by-step “how to” guide for data disclosure analysis from data protection planning to data dissemination. The basic steps of the process are to 1) write a disclosure analysis plan (DAP), 2) implement the DAP, 3) conduct an impact assessment, 4) write a post-mitigation report, and 5) disseminate data. The Playbook does not contain standard operating procedures for agencies to follow, but rather, it is a guideline for agencies to consider for their own best practice. The data used for the demonstration comes from the Prison Study that was conducted in 2014 for the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) as part of the Programme for the international Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC). The PIAAC Prison Study included an in-person assessment of literacy, numeracy and problem solving skills for adult inmates 16 to 74 years old from eligible federal and state prisons in the United States. The main challenge is to balance the needs for data users with the need to comply with laws and standards related to confidentiality. To address the challenges and following NCES standards, a risk assessment was conducted, and two risk mitigation approaches were implemented: data coarsening, and random perturbation through controlled data swapping. The impact of the perturbation was evaluated.