Data Confidentiality Workshop
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WORKSHOP ON DATA CONFIDENTIALITY

September 6-7, 2007 in Arlington, VA

White Paper & Bio

Howard Fienberg, Director of Government Affairs
CMOR – Promoting & Advocating for Survey & Opinion Research
http://www.cmor.org

White Paper for NSF Workshop on Data Confidentiality

How Survey and Opinion Researchers Handle Personally Identifiable Information (PII)

As part of the research process, survey and opinion researchers gather information about respondents' attitudes, opinions, and sometimes, even behaviors. Interviewers often ask for demographic information to help define the interest that the sample is likely to have in the product, service, or issue being studied. This information is not normally looked at by individual answers. Instead, each person's answers are combined with those of many others reported as a group to the client who requested the survey. Moreover, most research companies destroy individual questionnaires at the end of the study, and names and addresses of participants are separated from the answers if additional tabulation of the results is done. Again, all of the personal records are usually destroyed after the study is completed or the validation check has been made, and all of a respondent's personally identifiable information is kept strictly confidential.

“Privacy is our business”

Privacy is the cornerstone of the survey and opinion research profession. While respondents will always have to buy goods or services in some fashion, few respondents recognize any inherent need to respond to (or value in responding to) surveys – not even the decennial Census. If the profession violates respondent privacy, or is perceived to have done so, respondents will stop cooperating with research efforts. Moreover, every new data security breach makes respondents more wary of research participation – even though research firms and organizations are not the culprits. Every contact with respondents is therefore an opportunity to reinforce the confidential nature of the research process.

Thoughts for Workshop Participants

Survey and opinion researchers are often not on the cutting edge of confidentiality techniques, being more pre-occupied with methodological issues and compliance with existing laws and professional guidelines. They are more reliant on advances in the information technology and statistical fields.

The ideal “want” for survey and opinion researchers would be methods to reliably de-identify PII, while still keeping it useful for all the permutations of research and analysis. So what strides have already been made recently, and what can be expected in the near future, in the IT and statistical sciences, to accomplish this goal?

Also, what tools can be developed that will allow survey and opinion research organizations to monitor and control compliance with their privacy policy across their organization, and in their contractual obligations with contractors, clients and research partners?

 

Howard Fienberg

CMOR

 

 

Biographical Data

CMOR is a non-profit membership association representing the survey and opinion research profession, dedicated to improving respondent cooperation in research, and to promoting positive legislation and preventing restrictive legislation and regulation which could impact the research profession. As CMOR's Director of Government Affairs, Howard lobbies on privacy, telecommunications and IT issues, but also educates the survey and opinion research profession in how to best comply with existing law. Howard has nine years of public policy experience. He began his Congressional experience serving as Senior Legislative Assistant to then-Congressman Christopher Cox (R-CA). When Rep. Cox left to chair the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Howard moved to work as Senior Legislative Assistant for Congressman Cliff Stearns (R-FL). Howard was his Congressmen's key adviser on energy and environmental issues, finance and banking, foreign affairs, healthcare and science. He also served more than four years as Senior Analyst with a science policy think tank, the Statistical Assessment Service (STATS), specializing in epidemiology, energy and environment, new technology and polling. At STATS, Howard was tasked with improving the understanding of science and research among journalists and policymakers. He received an MA in International Relations from the University of Essex in England, and a BA in Political Studies from Trent University in Canada. Howard has also studied in Scotland and Russia.