Releasing survey microdata with exact cluster locations and additional privacy safeguards
Abstract Household survey programs around the world publish fine-granular georeferenced microdata to support research on the interdependence of human livelihoods and their surrounding environment. To safeguard the respondents’ privacy, micro-level survey data is usually (pseudo)-anonymized through d...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Springer Nature
2023-05-01
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| Series: | Humanities & Social Sciences Communications |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-01694-y |
| _version_ | 1827948206083801088 |
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| author | Till Koebe Alejandra Arias-Salazar Timo Schmid |
| author_facet | Till Koebe Alejandra Arias-Salazar Timo Schmid |
| author_sort | Till Koebe |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Household survey programs around the world publish fine-granular georeferenced microdata to support research on the interdependence of human livelihoods and their surrounding environment. To safeguard the respondents’ privacy, micro-level survey data is usually (pseudo)-anonymized through deletion or perturbation procedures such as obfuscating the true location of data collection. This, however, poses a challenge to emerging approaches that augment survey data with auxiliary information on a local level. Here, we propose an alternative microdata dissemination strategy that leverages the utility of the original microdata with additional privacy safeguards through synthetically generated data using generative models. We back our proposal with experiments using data from the 2011 Costa Rican census and satellite-derived auxiliary information. Our strategy reduces the respondents’ re-identification risk for any number of disclosed attributes by 60–80% even under re-identification attempts. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-09T12:51:49Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-922f47af737f475c8f6ffb53d123b0d2 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2662-9992 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-09T12:51:49Z |
| publishDate | 2023-05-01 |
| publisher | Springer Nature |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Humanities & Social Sciences Communications |
| spelling | doaj.art-922f47af737f475c8f6ffb53d123b0d22023-05-14T11:11:24ZengSpringer NatureHumanities & Social Sciences Communications2662-99922023-05-0110111310.1057/s41599-023-01694-yReleasing survey microdata with exact cluster locations and additional privacy safeguardsTill Koebe0Alejandra Arias-Salazar1Timo Schmid2Saarland Informatics Campus, Saarland UniversitySchool of Statistics, University of Costa RicaInstitute of Statistics, Otto Friedrich University BambergAbstract Household survey programs around the world publish fine-granular georeferenced microdata to support research on the interdependence of human livelihoods and their surrounding environment. To safeguard the respondents’ privacy, micro-level survey data is usually (pseudo)-anonymized through deletion or perturbation procedures such as obfuscating the true location of data collection. This, however, poses a challenge to emerging approaches that augment survey data with auxiliary information on a local level. Here, we propose an alternative microdata dissemination strategy that leverages the utility of the original microdata with additional privacy safeguards through synthetically generated data using generative models. We back our proposal with experiments using data from the 2011 Costa Rican census and satellite-derived auxiliary information. Our strategy reduces the respondents’ re-identification risk for any number of disclosed attributes by 60–80% even under re-identification attempts.https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-01694-y |
| spellingShingle | Till Koebe Alejandra Arias-Salazar Timo Schmid Releasing survey microdata with exact cluster locations and additional privacy safeguards Humanities & Social Sciences Communications |
| title | Releasing survey microdata with exact cluster locations and additional privacy safeguards |
| title_full | Releasing survey microdata with exact cluster locations and additional privacy safeguards |
| title_fullStr | Releasing survey microdata with exact cluster locations and additional privacy safeguards |
| title_full_unstemmed | Releasing survey microdata with exact cluster locations and additional privacy safeguards |
| title_short | Releasing survey microdata with exact cluster locations and additional privacy safeguards |
| title_sort | releasing survey microdata with exact cluster locations and additional privacy safeguards |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-01694-y |
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