Protecting Your Privacy in a Data-Driven World

At what point does the sacrifice to our personal information outweigh the public good? If public policymakers had access to our personal and confidential data, they could make more evidence-based, data-informed decisions that could accelerate economic recovery and improve COVID-19 vaccine distribution. However, access to personal data comes at a steep privacy cost for contributors, especially underrepresented groups. Protecting Your Privacy in a Data-Driven World is a practical, nontechnical guide that explains the importance of balancing these competing needs and calls for careful consideration of how data are collected and disseminated by our government and the private sector. Not addressing these concerns can harm the same communities policymakers are trying to protect through data privacy and confidentiality legislation.

1. Why Is Data Privacy Important? 2. How Did Data Privacy Change Over Time? 3. How Do Data Privacy Methods Expand Access to Data? 4. How Do Data Privacy Methods Avoid Invalidating Results? 5. What Makes Datasets Difficult for Data Privacy? 6. What Data Privacy Laws Exist? 7. What Is the Future of Data Privacy?

Dr. Claire McKay Bowen is the Lead Data Scientist for Privacy and Data Security at the Urban Institute. Her research focuses on developing and assessing the quality of di erentially private data synthesis methods and science communication. She holds a BS in mathematics and physics from Idaho State University and an MS and PhD in statistics from the University of Notre Dame. After completing her PhD, she worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory, where she investigated cosmic ray effects on supercomputers. In 2021, the Committee of Presidents of Statistical Societies identified her as an emerging leader in statistics for her “contributions to the development and broad dissemination of Statistics and Data Science methods and concepts, particularly in the emerging field of Data Privacy, and for leadership of technical initiatives, professional development activities, and educational programs.”