Recent Advances in Data 

Privacy and Public Policy

Jingchen (Monika) Hu

Vassar College

FCSM 2023

In collaboration with Claire Bowen from Urban Institute.
Background

- Statistical data privacy research and applications are growing

- Statistical agencies, from federal to city-level

- Private companies, from Meta to Google

- More funding from various sources specific for privacy research and applications

- Venues for presenting work and sharing ideas and community building

- Organized sessions at FCSM, Joint Statistical Meetings (and other American Statistical 

Association meetings),American Association for Public Opinion Research, etc.

- Privacy in Statistical Databases conference series

- Many established venues are organized by and for the Computer Science community

- A few hosted by the National Bureau of Economic Research recently
Presentation outline

- A need for venues for privacy and public policy!

- Main goal: 

To improve and strengthen the relationships among the privacy experts, 

researchers, data stewards, data practitioners, and public policymakers

- A series of workshops between October 2022 and January 2023

- Collaboration between the National Institute of Statistical Sciences, Penn State University, 

Vassar College, and Urban Institute

- Supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation

- Ongoing efforts to establish a more permanent conference on data privacy 

and public policy - we welcome your involvement!
Workshop series #1

“Census, Differential Privacy, and Civil Rights”

- One-day hybrid workshop at Penn State Institute for Computational and Data 

Sciences in October 2022

- 15 participants 

- Representing a cross section of academia, government, non-profit research, and civil rights 

groups

- Academic backgrounds include computer science, statistics, demography, political science, 

law, and public policy

- Topics presented include

- Demographic equity issues in federal data

- Analysis of end-to-end data quality issues for Native American Populations

- Social construction of data quality and uncertainty in official statistics
Workshop series #2 

“Current Challenges and Potential Future Work”

- 1.5-hour webinar in November 2022

- Precursor to the workshop series #3 

NISS IOF forum on “Advancing 

Demographic Equity with Privacy 

Preserving Methodologies” 

(January 2023)

- Four panelists from

- Academia

- Government

- NGO/Think Tank

- Data users/practitioners

- 117 attendees with a full presentation of 

academica, government, NGO/Think 

Tank, and data users/practitioners
Workshop series #2 

“Current Challenges and Potential Future Work”

- Topics discussed include each panelist

- How they got involved in data privacy and confidentiality work

- Describing a recent data privacy work project and its challenges and potential impact

- Giving examples from their experience where differential privacy has been used, either 

successfully or with some problems

- Evaluation of the tradeoff between privacy and utility

- Advice for someone early or mid-career who are thinking about getting involved in this field

To view the recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ti-cm3XO5-A&t=2s or search “IOF Webinar:

Advancing Demographic Equity with Privacy Preserving Methodologies” on YouTube
Workshop series #3 

“Advancing Demographic Equity with Privacy Preserving 

Methodologies”

- Two-day hybrid workshop at Urban Institute 

in January 2023

- Workshop goal: 

To bridge the communication gap and 

identify what tools and educational materials 

are needed to improve expanding access to 

confidential demographic data for better 

public policy decision-making

- 60 in-person and 15 virtual attendees
Workshop series #3 

“Advancing Demographic Equity with Privacy Preserving 

Methodologies”

- Six planned sessions

- Introduction to challenges in statistical privacy

- Applying statistical privacy methods and techniques

- Public policy and privacy law

- Panel on funding opportunities (representatives from Sloan Foundation, NSF, and Meta)

- Each non-panel session had 2-3 speakers with a full representation of 

academia, government, NGO/Think Tank, and data practitioners
Workshop series #3 

“Advancing Demographic Equity with Privacy Preserving 

Methodologies”

- Session topics

- Privacy and utility tradeoff

- Data privacy and data equity

- Differential privacy for surveys

- Bayesian methods for differentially private synthetic data

- Use cases of creating synthetic human services datasets

- Challenges related to collection of data on antimicrobial resistance in animals

- An overview of the differential privacy framework for the 2020 Census

- Measurement error in practice for official statistics

- Case studies from the NCHS Data Linkage Program

- Data equity and confidentiality treatments

- Presentation and Q&A of the ACDEB (Advisory Committee on Data for Evidence

Building) Year 2 Recommendations
Workshop series #3 

“Advancing Demographic Equity with Privacy Preserving 

Methodologies”

- Working roundtables and working groups

- Research challenges in statistical data privacy techniques

- Application challenges in statistical data privacy techniques

- Education and communication

- Equity in the context of privacy

- Public policy and privacy law

- Key takeaways

- The need for a centralized resource of data privacy methods and best practices

- More applied and practical applications of data privacy methodologies

- Events that bring together people from diverse backgrounds, such as workshops and 

conferences
Ongoing efforts

- To establish a more permanent conference 

series under the theme of Privacy and 

Public Policy, a first of its kind

- 5 co-chairs (academia, government, and 

NGO/Think Tank) on the program 

committee and planning committee

- Valbona Bejleri (USDA NASS; 

valbona.bejleri@usda.gov)

- Claire Bowen (Urban Institute; 

CBowen@urban.org)

- V. Joseph Hotz (Duke University; 

v.joseph.hotz@duke.edu)

- Quentin Brummet (NORC; 

Brummet-Quentin@norc.org)

- Monika Hu (Vassar College; jihu@vassar.edu)
Ongoing efforts

- Current conference details

- September 13-14, 2024

- Massive Data Institute at Georgetown University, Washington D.C.

- Single-track conference, i.e., no concurrent sessions

- Invited panel under the tentative theme of Translating Privacy Law to Practice

- Poster session 

- Abstract submission (2 pager) with reviewer process; deadline February 29, 2024

- We welcome your involvement!

- Mark your calendar

- Submit an abstract

- Share amongst your colleagues
Thank you! Questions?

Jingchen (Monika) Hu

jihu@vassar.edu

Vassar College