Differential Privacy in the 2020 Census from the Georgetown Center on Poverty and Inequality

Do you have questions about data privacy and the 2020 Census?

The Census Bureau has a legal obligation to protect confidentiality and recognizes that unacceptable levels of confidentiality loss may undermine the public’s trust in the bureau and people’s willingness to participate in future censuses. Starting with the 2020 Census, the bureau will modernize its protections by adopting a mathematical definition of confidentiality called “differential privacy.” Differential privacy offers notable benefits, including robust and measurable guarantees of confidentiality.