Definition: Disclosure control methods

Category: Statistical methodologies

There are two main approaches to control the disclosure of confidential data. The first is to reduce the information content of the data provided to the external user. For the release of tabular data this type of technique is called restriction based disclosure control method and for the release of microdata the expression disclosure control by data reduction is used. The second is to change the data before the dissemination in such a way that the disclosure risk for the confidential data is decreased, but the information content is retained as much as possible. These are called perturbation based disclosure control methods. http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/ramon/statmanuals/files/SDC_Handbook.pdf