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GCN Home > 10/25/04 issue

Keeping data sources confidential

By Joab Jackson, GCN Staff

OMB guide will help agencies that collect statistical information

When it comes to statistical data, the Energy Department is between a rock and a hard place. On one hand, the department must offer definitive data on energy use trends nationwide. How much oil is being extracted? How much is in reserve? How much is being processed in refineries? What price is it being sold for?

But at the same time, it must keep the data confidential. Large energy companies are wary of competitors getting hold of their information, either through legal challenges or by teasing apart aggregated data to find a company’s figures. If Energy can safeguard the information, the Exxons and Shells of the world will be more forthcoming with details.

For agencies that gather statistical information, protecting participants’ identities has always been a concern. Soon the Office of Management and Budget will issue a guide to help agencies make sure they are securing their statistical data against privacy invasions, as required by a a provision of the E-Government Act of 2002.

On the technology side, agencies have worked to perfect techniques to obscure the origin of data. On the legal side, Title V of the E-Gov Act, the Confidential Information Protection and Statistical Efficiency Act, set the rules for protecting the sources of that data.

Now, the administration’s CIPSEA guidance will make sure agencies gathering statistical data comply with the privacy regulations set forth by Congress.

OMB expects to issue the CIPSEA guide by year’s end. It will standardize the language federal agencies should use when collecting data for statistical purposes.

“The law is pretty general, and the guidance has specific requirements for the agencies,” said Jay Casselberry, an Energy statistician and agency clearance officer in the Statistics and Methods Group of the Energy Information Administration.

Statistics vs. administration

The government collects data for two fundamentally different purposes, said Katherine Wallman, OMB’s chief statistician and overseer of the CIPSEA guide. Most data the government collects is for administrative purposes. Think tax forms and passports.

Other agencies collect data strictly for statistical purposes. Agency workers or contractors survey people and businesses to get an idea of the trends and activities in the country. These surveys sometimes probe sensitive personal and corporate information.

More news on related topics: E-Government, IT Security, Storage Management



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