Geospatial Data and Trust: Privacy and Utility in the Decennial Census
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Keywords: privacy, census,
Abstract Type: Paper Abstract
Authors:
Nicholas Nagle, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
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Abstract
The Census Bureau adopted differential privacy - a method to intentional add error to official statistics - to protect privacy in the 2020 Decennial Census. This decision has dramatically altered usability of Census data. It has been lauded by some professional groups and derided by others. I show the history of this decision and conflict as one of differing cultures if trust and distrust, both within and without the US Bureau of the Census. This conflict highlights holes in geography’s thinking about spatial data privacy and a still incomplete reckoning with spatial data, privacy, and data ethics.
Geospatial Data and Trust: Privacy and Utility in the Decennial Census
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Paper Abstract
