Implementing Differential Privacy: Seven Lessons From the 2020 United States Census

With the 2020 Census now underway, there is substantial national and global interest in the U.S. Census Bureau’s decision to modernize the statistical safeguards that will be used to protect respondent privacy. The Census Bureau’s adoption of differential privacy for the 2020 Census marks a transformational moment for official statistics. But, the transition to differential privacy has raised a number of questions about the proper balance between privacy and accuracy in official statistics, the prioritization of certain data uses over others, and the future of statistical offices and their data products. As organizations increasingly consider differential privacy as a solution to the vexing privacy threats of today, the Census Bureau’s experiences in navigating these issues may be instructive for statistical agencies, corporations, researchers, and data users across the United States, and around the world.