Definition: Argus
Statistical methodologies
Two software packages for Statistical Disclosure Control are called Argus, μ-ARGUS is a specialized software tool for the protection of microdata. The two main techniques used for this are global recoding and local suppression. In the case of global recoding several categories of a variable are collapsed into a single one. The effect of local suppression is that one or more values in an unsafe combination are suppressed, i.e. replaced by a missing value. Both global recoding and local suppression lead to a loss of information, because either less detailed information is provided or some information is not given at all. τ-ARGUS is a specialized software tool for the protection of tabular data. τ-ARGUS is used to produce safe tables. τ-ARGUS uses the same two main techniques as μ-ARGUS: global recoding and local suppression. For τ-ARGUS the latter consists of suppression of cells in a table.
Source:
ESSNet SDC (Network of Excellence in the European Statistical System in the field of Statistical Disclosure Control), under the coordination of Anco HUNDEPOOL, "Handbook on Statistical Disclosure Control", version 1.2 (2010 Edition)
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