Since last I wrote, I’ve been able to learn more about a question that had plagued me: what of IPUMS, that unparalleled resource for census micro-data? For one thing, I was sure they must be thinking about privacy already – micro-data must be handled with care. For another, the 2020 Census “Privacy Budget” work is likely to make IPUMS’s work pretty complicated or even impossible.
Turns out, they are of course way ahead of me. Here’s their page on the topic, which also links to the Census’ released software and documentation, as well as to data available from IPUMS that researchers can use to test that software.
I also happen to know someone who works at IPUMS, and he says they’ve already been doing record swapping and injecting “noise” into their data to protect unique cases.
I certainly hope that everyone involved can figure out how to protect people’s privacy while still allowing vital research. This seems like an impossibly tangled knot to me.