Abstract
This paper is concerned with the problem of balancing the competing objectives of allowing statistical analysis of confidential data while maintaining standards of privacy and confidentiality. Remote analysis servers have been proposed as a way to address this problem by delivering results of statistical analyses without giving the analyst any direct access to data. Several national statistical agencies operate successful remote analysis servers, see for example [1,12].
Remote analysis servers are not free from disclosure risk, and current implementations address this risk by “confidentialising” the underlying data and/or by denying some queries. In this paper we explore the alternative solution of “confidentialising” the output of a server so that no confidential information is revealed or can be inferred.
In this paper we first review relevant results on remote analysis servers, and provide an explicit list of measures for confidentialising the output from a single regression query to a remote server, as suggested by Sparks et al. [22,23]. We give details of a fully worked example, and compare the confidentialised output from the query to a remote server with the output from a traditional statistical package.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Australian Bureau of Statistics Remote Access Data Laboratory (RADL), http://www.abs.gov.au/websitedbs/D3310114.nsf/home/CURF: +Remote+Access+Data+Laboratory+(RADL)?OpenDocument
Dandekar, R.A., Domingo-Ferrer, J., Torra, V.: Maximum utility-minimum information loss table server design for statistical disclosure control of tabular data. In: Domingo Ferrer, J., Torra, V. (eds.) Privacy in Statistical Databases. LNCS, vol. 3050. Springer, Berlin (2004)
Domingo-Ferrer, J., Torra, V. (eds.): Privacy in Statistical Databases. LNCS, vol. 3050. Springer, Berlin (2004)
Doyle, P., Lane, J.I., Theeuwes, J.J.M., Zayatz, L.: Confidentiality, Disclosure and Data Access: Theory and Practical Applications for Statistical Agencies. Elsevier, Amsterdam (2001)
Duncan, G.T., Mukherjee, S.: Microdata Disclosure Limitation in Statistical Databases: Query Size and Random Sample Query Control. In: Proceedings of the 1991 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, pp. 278–287 (1991)
Duncan, G.T., Pearson, R.W.: Enhancing access to microdata while protecting confidentiality: prospects for the future. Statistical Science 6, 219–239 (1991)
Gomatam, S., Karr, A.F., Reiter, J.P., Sanil, A.: Data dissemination and disclosure limitation in a world without microdata: A risk-utility framework for remote access servers. Statistical Science 20, 163–177 (2005)
Grady, D., Applegate, W., Bush, T., Furberg, C., Riggs, B., Hulley, S.B.: Heart and Estrogen/progestin Replacement Study (HERS): Design, Methods, and Baseline Characteristics. Controlled Clinical Trials 19, 314–335 (1998)
Karr, A.F., Lee, J., Sanil, A.P., Hernandez, J., Karimi, S., Litwin, K.: Web-based systems that disseminate information but protect confidentiality. In: McIver, W.M., Elmagarmid, A.K. (eds.) Advances in Digital Government: Technology, Human Factors and Public Policy, pp. 181–196. Kluwer, Amsterdam (2002)
Karr, A.F., Dobra, A., Sanil, A.P.: Table servers protect confidentiality in tabular data releases. Communications of the ACM 46 (2003)
Keller-McNulty, S., Unger, E.A.: A database system prototype for remote access to information based on confidential data. Journal of Official Statistics 14, 347–360 (1998)
Luxembourg Income Study, www.lisproject.org
O’Keefe, C.M.: Privacy and the Use of Health Data - Reducing Disclosure Risk, electronic. Journal of Health Informatics 3(1), e5 (2008)
O’Keefe, C.M., Good, N.: Risk and Utility of Alternative Regression Diagnostics in Remote Analysis Servers. In: Proceedings of the 55th Session of the ISI International Statistical Institute, Lisbon, Portugal, 22-29 August (2007)
The R Project for Statistical Computing, www.r-project.org
Reiter, J.P.: Model diagnostics for remote-access regression servers. Statistics and Computing 13, 371–380 (2003)
Reiter, J.P.: New Approaches to Data Dissemination: A Glimpse into the Future (?). Chance 17, 12–16 (2004)
Reiter, J.P., Kohnen, C.N.: Categorical data regression diagnostics for remote servers. Journal of Statistical Computation and Simulation 75, 889–903 (2005)
Reznek, A.P.: Recent Confidentiality Research Related to Access to Enterprise Microdata. In: Prepared for the Comparative Analysis of Enterprise Microdata (CAED) Conference, Chicago IL, USA (2006)
Rowland, S.: An examination of monitored, remote access microdata access systems. In: National Academy of Sciences Workshop on Data Access, October 16-17 (2003)
Schouten, B., Cigrang, M.: Remote access systems for statistical analysis of microdata. Statistics and Computing 13, 371–380 (2003)
Sparks, R., Carter, C., Donnelly, J., Duncan, J., O’Keefe, C.M., Ryan, L.: A framework for performing statistical analyses of unit record health data without violating either privacy or confidentiality of individuals. In: Proceedings of the 55th Session of the International Statistical Institute, Sydney (2005)
Sparks, R., Carter, C., Donnelly, J., O’Keefe, C.M., Duncan, J., Keighley, T., McAullay, D.: Remote Access Methods for Exploratory Data Analysis and Statistical Modelling: Privacy-Preserving AnalyticsTM. Comput. Methods Programs Biomed (to appear, 2008)
Willenborg, L., de Waal, T.: Elements of Statistical Disclosure Control. Lecture Notes in Statistics, vol. 155. Springer, Heidelberg (2001)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
O’Keefe, C.M., Good, N.M. (2008). A Remote Analysis Server - What Does Regression Output Look Like?. In: Domingo-Ferrer, J., Saygın, Y. (eds) Privacy in Statistical Databases. PSD 2008. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 5262. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-87471-3_23
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-87471-3_23
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-87470-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-87471-3
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)