Felix Ritchie Felix.Ritchie@uwe.ac.uk
Professor in Economics
10 is the safest number that there's ever been
Ritchie, Felix
Authors
Abstract
When checking frequency and magnitude tables for disclosure risk, the cell threshold (the minimum number of observations in each cell) is a crucial parameter. In rules-based environments, this is a hard limit on what can or can't be published. In principles-based environments, this is less important but has an impact on the operational effectiveness of statistical disclosure control (SDC) processes. Determining the appropriate threshold is an unsolved problem. Ten is a common threshold value for both national statistics and research outputs, but five or twenty are also popular. Some organisations use multiple thresholds for different data sources. These higher thresholds are all entirely subjective. Three is the only threshold which has an objective statistical foundation, but most organisations argue that this leaves little margin for error. Unfortunately, there is no equivalent statistical case for any number larger than three: ten is popular because it is popular. This is particularly the case for research environments, where there is no guidance. This paper provides the first empirical foundation for threshold selection by modelling alternative threshold values on both synthetic data and real datasets. The paper demonstrates that this is a complex question. The trade-off between risk and value is well-known, but we demonstrate that the protection of a higher threshold depends on the risk measure. There is no monotonic relation between a threshold and risk, as higher thresholds can increase disclosure risk in particular scenarios. The blind application of high-threshold rules might mask new risks. There is no unambiguous result, other than the simplistic ones that more observations reduces risk and higher thresholds reduce utility. Finally, the paper notes that a reconsideration of disclosure checking practices can reduce risk irrespective of the threshold for some risk scenarios.
Citation
Ritchie, F. (2022). 10 is the safest number that there's ever been. Transactions on data privacy, 15(2), 109-140
Journal Article Type | Article |
---|---|
Acceptance Date | Aug 1, 2022 |
Online Publication Date | Aug 31, 2022 |
Publication Date | Aug 31, 2022 |
Deposit Date | Aug 11, 2022 |
Publicly Available Date | Oct 1, 2022 |
Journal | Transactions on Data Privacy |
Print ISSN | 1888-5063 |
Electronic ISSN | 2013-1631 |
Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
Volume | 15 |
Issue | 2 |
Pages | 109-140 |
Series ISSN | 1888-5063 |
Keywords | privacy, confidentiality, data governance, statistical disclosure control |
Public URL | https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/9853172 |
Publisher URL | http://www.tdp.cat/issues21/abs.a445a21.php |
Files
10 is the safest number that there's ever been
(680 Kb)
PDF
Licence
http://www.rioxx.net/licenses/all-rights-reserved
Publisher Licence URL
http://www.rioxx.net/licenses/all-rights-reserved
Copyright Statement
This is the author’s accepted manuscript. The final published version is available here: http://www.tdp.cat/issues21/abs.a445a21.php
The author(s) retain any copyright on the submitted material. The contributors grant the journal the right to publish, distribute, index, archive and publicly display the article (and the abstract)
in printed, electronic or any other form.
Related Outputs
10 is the safest number that there’s ever been
(2019)
Presentation / Conference
You might also like
Disclosure control issues in complex medical data
(2023)
Presentation / Conference
Towards a comprehensive theory and practice of output SDC
(2023)
Presentation / Conference
Research data governance in low- and middle-income countries
(2023)
Presentation / Conference
Downloadable Citations
About UWE Bristol Research Repository
Administrator e-mail: repository@uwe.ac.uk
This application uses the following open-source libraries:
SheetJS Community Edition
Apache License Version 2.0 (http://www.apache.org/licenses/)
PDF.js
Apache License Version 2.0 (http://www.apache.org/licenses/)
Font Awesome
SIL OFL 1.1 (http://scripts.sil.org/OFL)
MIT License (http://opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.html)
CC BY 3.0 ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)
Powered by Worktribe © 2024
Advanced Search