Statistical Confidentiality

George T. Duncan is Professor of Statistics, Emeritus, Carnegie Mellon University. He chaired the National Academy of Sciences Panel on Confidentiality and Data Access. Mark Elliot is lecturer in social statistics at Manchester University in the UK, consultant to data stewardship organisations worldwide, and inventor of  methods for assessing disclosure risk. J.J. Salazar is Professor of Statistics and Operations Research at University of La Laguna (Tenerife, Spain). He has participated in several EU research projects and his algorithms to protect tabular data. are available through the software τ-ARGUS He has taught courses on data protection for several national statistical offices.

• Why statistical confidentiality?- Concepts of statistical disclosure limitation.- Assessment of disclosure risk.- Protecting tabular data.- Providing and protecting microdata.- Disclosure rRisk and data utility.- Restrictions on data access.- Thoughts on the future.

From the reviews: "This is an interesting book that should be read not only by statisticians but by every person involved with managing large amounts of data. ... The book is aimed at people looking for protecting their statistical data bases. ... The authors quote the importance of the problems that academics ought to study for aiding the research that governmental statisticians are doing. A glossary with more than 60 terms is given at the end of the book together with more than bibliographic 200 entries." (Carlos Narciso Bouza Herrera, Zentralblatt MATH, Vol. 1233, 2012) "This book deals with a highly sensitive issue which is growing more and more important as data capture and analysis technologies continue to advance. ... It is very accessible, and would be an ideal entry portal for anyone concerned with statistical confidentiality or who is about to begin work in this area. ... given the importance of the area, many others not working directly on such matters would benefit from an awareness of the topics it discusses." (David J. Hand, International Statistical Review, Vol. 80 (3), 2012)