Why census data needs robust confidentiality protections: The apportionment numbers — required by law — include population counts of each state and the U.S. as a whole. Results determine how many congressional representatives each state receives.
Other upcoming data releases will include more detail. These will be used for everything from redistricting to environmental justice to COVID recovery. This is why making sure the data is secure is paramount. Today, regulation and protection includes significant punishment — fines and prison time — for any Census Bureau employee who creates a breach or leaks data. The Census Bureau takes the matter so seriously that even accessing data requires a validation process and lifelong commitment — arguably the most effective outreach tool for collecting sensitive data.
Without this level of trust in ensuring confidentiality, there would be no census, and hard to count communities
would be missed in greater proportion. But what we do today simply
isn’t enough, which is why the creation of a new disclosure avoidance
system is crucial.
