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Confidentiality and Data Access Committee (CDAC) 
Checklist Overview


Federal statistical agencies and their contractors often collect data from persons, businesses, or other entities under a pledge of confidentiality. Before disseminating the results as either public-use microdata files or tables, these agencies should apply statistical methods to protect the confidentiality of the information they collect. A review and evaluation of the statistical disclosure limitation techniques used by Federal statistical agencies can be found in the Federal Committee on Statistical Methodology's 1994 report, Report on Statistical Disclosure Limitation Methodology (Statistical Policy Working Paper [SPWP] # 22). In addition, SPWP # 22 contains a set of 12 recommendations to improve disclosure limitation practices.

One of the recommendations in SPWP # 22 is that agencies should centralize their review of disclosure-limited data products. In discussing this recommendation, SPWP # 22 suggests that if the number of programs is small, such a review could be handled by one individual; alternatively, if an agency has multiple or large programs, a review panel, team, or board might be needed. In this document, the term Disclosure Review Board is used to refer to the formally or informally designated unit or individual that handles such review. The attached document, "Checklist on Disclosure Potential of Proposed Data Releases" (called Checklist), is one tool that can assist agencies in reviewing disclosure-limited data products. Completed Checklists should be submitted to the Disclosure Review Board for review.

Most agency data products are intended for public use, with no restrictions on eligibility and intended use. Products that meet the criteria for public release may not have sufficient detail to satisfy the analytical requirements of all users. Consequently, some agencies have developed restricted access procedures for making more detailed microdata files and tables available to some users, subject to conditions of eligibility, location of use, purpose of use, security procedures, and other features associated with access to the data. This Checklist is intended primarily for use in the development of public-use data products. Some of the disclosure limitation procedures described in the Checklist may be of value in preparing data products for restricted access; however, the procedures may have to be relaxed to some degree to meet users' analytical requirements. The Confidentiality and Data Access Committee (CDAC) plans to develop additional documents (perhaps including another checklist) for use in developing arrangements for restricted releases of microdata files and tables. Pending availability of these documents, agencies may wish to consult a 1993 article Journal of Official Statistics by Thomas B. Jabine, entitled "Procedures for Restricted Data Access" (vol. 9, no. 3, pp. 519-590), which summarizes restricted access procedures in use at that time.

The Checklist consists of a series of questions that are designed to assist an agency's Disclosure Review Board to determine the suitability of releasing either public-use microdata files or tables from data collected from individuals and/or organizations under an assurance of confidentiality. Section 4 pertains to microdata files that contain information from individuals or establishments, while Sections 5 and 6 refer to tabular data from individuals and establishments, respectively. This Checklist is based on one used at the U.S. Bureau of the Census. In creating its Checklist, CDAC has liberally borrowed descriptions and definitions from SPWP # 22.


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