Federal Statistics, Multiple Data Sources, and Privacy Protection Next Steps (2017) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
7 A New Entity to Provide Vital Information Through Enhanced Federal Statistics
7 A New Entity to Provide Vital Information Through Enhanced Federal Statistics
Pages 133-156
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 133... ...
Integration of these efforts into a single en tity could achieve many benefits if all statistical agencies could use a secure data-sharing environment. Without a new entity, no scaling of expertise can occur in privacy protection measures, statistical modeling on multiple datasets, and IT [information technology]
|
From page 134... ...
The mission of the new entity would be to assist federal statistical agencies to reduce the costs and increase the value of national statistics by integrating data from multiple data sources. The entity would be a service provider to federal statistical agencies, providing increased access to data from surveys; federal, state, and local administrative data; and privatesector data.
|
From page 135... ...
In our first report, we identified the key questions that would need to be addressed in creating an entity that would respond to the challenges that statistical agencies have had in accessing, evaluating, and using administrative and private-sector data sources for federal statistics. In this section, we discuss the following attributes of the recommended entity: organizational
|
From page 136... ...
There are also implications for how the entity works with existing federal statistical agencies, funding, and staffing. Option: A Federal Statistical Agency Legal Authorities and Protections All federal statistical agencies are covered by CIPSEA.
|
From page 137... ...
Therefore, if an existing statistical agency or unit is designated as the entity, one of the larger statistical agencies would be better able to realistically meet the needs of all of the other statistical agencies. Two possible candidates are the Census Bureau and the bureau's Center for Administrative Records Research and Applications (CARRA)
|
From page 138... ...
It would also need to establish relationships with existing federal statistical agencies, as well as federal program agencies that have administrative data useful for federal statistics. It would need to create an organizational culture of service to other agencies.
|
From page 139... ...
If a freestanding new federal statistical agency is created, careful planning would be needed for its governance structure and for appropriate authority for the head of the entity as part of the legislation authorizing the new agency. Option: A Federally Funded Research and Development Center Although the reasoning above notes many advantages of locating the new entity as a part of the federal government and in an existing statistical agency, concerns have been raised in recent years that there are a variety of cultural and institutional barriers to innovation in the nation's statistical agencies (see National Research Council, 2011)
|
From page 140... ...
The legal framework for the acquisition, protection, and use of data only for statistical purposes is a fundamental requirement for the entity, and it is unclear whether an FFRDC could operate like a statistical agency and have the authority to acquire and protect data and permit only statistical uses of the information. For the entity to be successful, it would need to have even broader authority to acquire data than that of any statistical agency.
|
From page 141... ...
The Institute for Research on Innovation and Science at the University of Michigan has an agreement with the Census Bureau, which permits linking of university administrative data with the demographic and business data from the Census Bureau.4 The linked data can then be accessed and analyzed through FSRDCs. A public-private research center managed by a university would have many of the advantages of the FFRDCs in terms of attracting highly skilled personnel outside of the constraints of the federal civil service regulations, and also offer a pipeline for attracting students to work for the entity or federal statistical agencies.
|
From page 142... ...
Managed by New York University, the Administrative Data Research Facility (NYU/ADRF) exemplifies how a computing platform might meet the needs of statistical agencies.
|
From page 143... ...
It would help address issues of access and would operate effectively when federal statistical agencies have expertise in their subject matter areas and are best equipped to examine and determine the quality of different data sources for their domains. In contrast, a major advantage of a full-service entity is that it could provide more support and services to a number of statistical agencies (as well as outside researchers, as discussed below)
|
From page 144... ...
RECOMMENDATION 7-2 The recommended new entity should assist federal statistical agencies in identifying data sources that can most effectively inform the creation of national statistics, help develop techniques to use data from these sources to compute national statistics while respecting privacy and other protection obligations on the data, and nurture the expertise required to perform these functions. As described in more detail below, we also recommend a phased implementation plan for the new entity that would permit regular and recurring review of what functions the new entity can best perform for federal statistical agencies to tailor the scope over time to maximize advantages and minimize disadvantages.
|
From page 145... ...
. For these reasons, we expect that a distributed or federated architecture for the proposed integration of multiple data sources would be a better approach than a centralized approach and would still address the issues of access for administrative data by federal statistical agencies.
|
From page 146... ...
There are currently a variety of approaches for external researchers to access and analyze data from a statistical agency: collaborating with agency staff who themselves conduct the analyses, becoming a research affiliate of the agency subject to legal restrictions of all employees, and applying for data access outside the agency on a project-by-project basis. Some agencies, such as Statistics of Income of the Internal Revenue Service, have active programs pairing agency staff with outside researchers for statistical studies using their data.
|
From page 147... ...
As stated above, the primary goal of the new entity should be to provide access to data held by federal statistical agencies. A number of issues will have to be addressed to permit appropriately designated staff from different agencies to access and analyze survey and administrative data from other agencies with the appropriate controls, oversight, privacy protections, and governance.
|
From page 148... ...
Throughout our discussion of the entity, we have noted the fundamental importance of the legal framework protecting data for federal statistics and the restrictions on using these data for statistical purposes only, and we repeat the recommendation from Chapter 4: Recommendation 4-1 Because linked datasets offer greater privacy threats than single datasets, federal statistical agencies should develop and implement strategies to safeguard privacy while increasing acces sibility to linked datasets for statistical purposes. We further elaborated in our first report how federal statistical agencies and the recommended entity will need to address both security threats and inference threats resulting from the use of multiple data sources.
|
From page 149... ...
The entity would need to hire and continually train staff in state-of-the-art privacy protections. The environment of the entity and the data accessible through it should provide rich opportunities for exploring these issues, as well as providing opportunities to leverage expertise for the benefit of the entire federal statistical system.
|
From page 150... ...
It will also need to give careful consideration to the best way to communicate with various audiences, including both its processes and the results of statistical programs and research projects that are conducted through the new entity. RECOMMENDATION 7-4 The recommended new entity should endeavor to maximize the transparency of its statistical activities by posting a summary of the data sources accessed through the entity on a public website.
|
From page 151... ...
Similar to the arrangements noted above, supplemental funding could be obtained through reimbursable agreements with federal statistical or program agencies and charging fees of outside users. In the panel's first report, we noted that the new entity would not take over federal statistical agency programs or authorities nor draw heavily on
|
From page 152... ...
Because its role as a service provider to federal statistical agencies is a fundamental rationale for existing, it is essential that the federal statistical agencies have a strong role in governing its activities. As we describe above, there are a range of functions and activities that the entity might conceivably adopt, and these may evolve by expanding or contracting over time depending on the needs of the federal statistical agencies.
|
From page 153... ...
RECOMMENDATION 7-6 The director of the recommended new entity should report to a board of directors that includes representatives of the federal statistical agencies, experts on privacy, holders of data used in the entity, and users of statistical data. As we stress throughout this report, privacy is fundamental to the operation and sustainability of the recommended entity. Because of the diverse perspectives on privacy that need to be considered, the entity and the federal statistical system could benefit from regular discussions and advice in this domain.
|
From page 154... ...
Currently, a federal statistical agency may only be able to access administrative data from a state or another federal agency for one statistical program in its portfolio even though other programs could benefit: such expanded access would further improve the cost efficiency of the agency and the utility of its statistical products. And other statistical agencies, with the same legal protections and requirements for safeguarding the privacy and confidentiality of the data and similarly secured computing environments, also cannot
|
From page 155... ...
We expect that expanded data sharing with states will take more planning and strategic efforts than required for federal data sharing, including identifying appropriate incentives for states and local governments to provide access to their administrative data. There are a variety of arrangements that currently provide mutual benefits to the states and federal statistical agencies -- such as the Longitudinal Employer Household Data system (see description in National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2017b, Ch.
|
From page 156... ...
We can envision viable entities being created by giving greater independence and authority to CARRA or a statistical agency or by creating a new entity at a university through a public-private partnership or a new FFRDC. Each arrangement poses some slightly different challenges and requirements that will need to be addressed.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.