The two-day Workshop on Data Confidentiality will
be held at the Westin Arlington Gateway from September 6-7, 2007.
This workshop comes at a time when governments and organizations are
struggling to expand research access to statistical and multimedia
databases, while at the sametime as protecting the confidentiality
of the individuals whose data are recorded and combatting breaches
of cyberinfrastructure security, especially those involving unauthorized
record linkage and
individual identification and harm. There has been a long tradition
of confidentiality associated with statistical databases, but the
ever-expanding cyberinfrastructure raises new and far more challenging
questions about the protection of privacy associated with electronic
databases involving individuals, families and other groups, and organizations.
The goal of this workshop is to bring together leading researchers
in the area of privacy and confidentiality from diverse intellectual
communities to share expertise and map out a broad research agenda
to inform funding agencies and organizations responsible for database
access and protection. Specific attention will be focused on understanding
the tension between privacy/confidentiality and data utility, and
understanding the role of auxiliary information (“extra”
information known to the adversary) in defeating privacy objectives.