Creating an Integrated System of Data and Statistics on Household Income, Consumption, and Wealth Time to Build (2024) / Chapter Skim
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6 Governance, Legal, and Privacy Issues
6 Governance, Legal, and Privacy Issues
Pages 277-306
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From page 277... ...
By statistical activity, we mean "the collection, compilation, processing, or analysis of data for the purpose of describing or making estimates concerning the whole, or relevant groups… within the economy…" By statistical purpose, we mean "the description, estimation, or analysis of the characteristics of groups, without identifying the individuals or organizations that comprise such groups… [Statistical purposes include] the development, implementation, or maintenance of… information resources that support these purposes" (Office of Management and 6-1 PREPUBLICATION COPY, UNCORRECTED PROOFS
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From page 280... ...
2022.01 The Five Safes framework offers a guide to the interaction of users with ICW products. Chapter 3 in this report described our expectation that, at a minimum, there would be publicly available ICW summary statistics and restricted-access ICW research microdata.
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From page 281... ...
The federal statistical agencies are increasingly concerned about the potential re-identification of data subjects in household surveys for which individual-level records are released. Privacy concerns for the second approach -- launching a new panel -- revolve around the linkage of administrative data to the survey responses for panel participants.
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From page 282... ...
Both the unemployment insurance wage records and the Social Security Administration Detailed Earnings Records are potentially valuable sources of information on earnings that, used in conjunction PREPUBLICATION COPY, UNCORRECTED PROOFS
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From page 283... ...
The MAF is compiled from United States Postal Service and local community data, with Census Bureau field work additions and verifications. The Master Address File–Auxiliary Reference File (MAF-ARF)
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From page 284... ...
Chapters 4 and 5 discussed many additional administrative datasets, surveys, and commercial datasets that could contribute to creating an ICW data infrastructure, noting also that there may be legal and policy barriers to accessing or integrating these sources. As described in Chapter 5, federal household surveys that could contribute to the ICW data infrastructure include these: • Survey of Consumer Finances • Consumer Expenditure Survey • Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement (CPS ASEC)
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From page 285... ...
The data sharing agreements for administrative or commercial data may have narrow or explicit uses that would need to be modified to allow the data to be used to build the ICW infrastructure the panel envisions. There are multiple decision makers involved across agencies and companies, PREPUBLICATION COPY, UNCORRECTED PROOFS
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From page 286... ...
Similar interpretations of the common rule may allow linkages to other data sources, including commercial data from providers such as Zillow or with tightly controlled Census data, especially if coupled with privacy enhancing technologies. As discussed in Chapter 5, a number of federally sponsored blended data products have been produced and are housed at various statistical agencies: • Decennial Census Digitization and Linkage Project PREPUBLICATION COPY, UNCORRECTED PROOFS
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From page 287... ...
have already been linked to Census Bureau data in the NEWS project and other Census Bureau projects. 130 130 For example, the following are ongoing Census FSRDC projects: Improving the Efficiency of ModelInformed Decision-making in Responsive and Adaptive Survey Designs (James Wagner, investigator)
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From page 289... ...
GOVERNANCE, LEGAL, AND PRIVACY ISSUES 6-13 • Credit card transactions • Vehicle purchases • Subsidized health care • Subsidized housing • Business scanner data • Government transfers • Employer benefits • Transfer between households • Alimony • Child support paid and received • Regular support to family members • Remittances • Lump sum cash transfers • Cash gifts paid or received • State agency program data • Employer and employee pension contributions • Interest and dividends on retirement accounts • Pension income received and withdrawals • Health insurance benefits • Net imputed rent for homeowners • House values • Outstanding credit • Debts paid or incurred on behalf of others • Student debt • College savings plans • Inheritances and bequests • Child support debt • Prison related debt • Medical debt • Legal debt • Unrealized capital gains • Mortgages PREPUBLICATION COPY, UNCORRECTED PROOFS
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From page 290... ...
Data linkage could rely on existing production systems within federal statistical agencies or on an honest broker or intermediary. The Coleridge Initiative acts as an intermediary for data linkages within and across states, often linking quarterly wage data to post-secondary and other state government program data.
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From page 291... ...
There are numerous ways to protect privacy for linked data, and new methods are in development at the federal statistical agencies (IRS, Census Bureau, National Center for Health Statistics)
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These included the protocols for accessing the data contained in Abel Kho's Capricorn project (Kho, 2022) ; NIH's All of Us linkages 131; and Mary Ann Bates' in-process data infrastructure, 131 See https://allofus.nih.gov PREPUBLICATION COPY, UNCORRECTED PROOFS
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From page 293... ...
Conclusion 6-1: Expanding access to the data infrastructure for household income, consumption, and wealth will require building a tiered access system that relies on open data (statistical series that are regularly published) and a set of public data products such as tables, public use files, and/or synthetic data as well as restricted access to microdata for approved projects and users who work in secure enclaves, in Trusted Execution Environments, or using secure query servers.
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From page 294... ...
, the demonstration project is focused on innovation: novel research collaborations, data linkage methods, and privacy-enhancing technologies. It opened an Idea Box in Fall 2023, gathering 132 Details about the Census Bureau's synthetic data projects are available online, at What Are Synthetic Data?
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From page 295... ...
Titles 26 and 13, which require research to benefit the IRS and the Census Bureau, respectively." There may be scope for the staff of these agencies to broaden their interpretations of what is permitted under these titles, but changes in the law might be required. One possible path forward that might be more acceptable to lawyers and cybersecurity experts would be to limit access to modalities that provide greater privacy protections, such as trusted execution enclaves or secure multiparty PREPUBLICATION COPY, UNCORRECTED PROOFS
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From page 296... ...
The federal statistical agencies involved in the FSRDC network have made great strides in reducing the review time required for access to the FSRDC, providing virtual access to many projects, and providing metadata through the new Standard Application Process. The panel hopes that these efforts continue, with an eye toward tiered access methods that can improve access while enhancing privacy protection.
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From page 297... ...
The release of these regulations should accelerate the development and deployment of additional access tiers, enabling the dual goals for ICW data of regular production of summary statistics from joint distributions and restricted access to research microdata. While the United States lacks a single statistical agency to prioritize ICW data goals, this country does have supportive leadership in the person of the Chief Statistician of the United PREPUBLICATION COPY, UNCORRECTED PROOFS
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From page 298... ...
The steering committee's functions could include determining value propositions and risks; making recommendations about improvements to estimation methods; ensuring that the relevant statistical agencies cooperate to implement the panel's recommended production of statistics; coordinating the release and communication of the new estimates; and working with the coordinating entity to develop an acquisition and collaboration system for sharing survey, commercial, and administrative data. ROADMAP FOR MAKING PROGRESS ON ICW DATA AND PRODUCTS Building an integrated system of data on ICW and producing coordinated and consistent estimates of the distributions of ICW require collaboration across the federal agencies, with the help of the Chief Statistician, NSDS leadership, and the Interagency Council on Statistical Policy.
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From page 299... ...
project is "required under the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act to inform a governmentwide effort on strengthening data linkage and data access infrastructure." The NSDS concept was introduced by the Commission on Evidence-Based Policymaking in 2016. https://ncses.nsf.gov/about/national-secure-data-service-demo PREPUBLICATION COPY, UNCORRECTED PROOFS
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These seminars could be sponsored by research institutions, like Washington Center PREPUBLICATION COPY, UNCORRECTED PROOFS
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As stated in Recommendation 6-3, the medium term includes working with the coordinating entity and the steering committee to develop an NSDS pilot project to make data accessible for researchers. Finally, the medium term includes the investigation of a new survey, or adding questions to a current commercial database, for the purpose of including detailed financial information like spending and wealth, as in Recommendation 5-5.
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From page 303... ...
. Research should continue PREPUBLICATION COPY, UNCORRECTED PROOFS
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