Disclosure Risk

Synonyms

Re-identification risk; Attribute disclosure; Identity disclosure

Definition

In the context of statistical disclosure control, disclosure risk can be defined as the risk that a user or an intruder can use the protected dataset V′ to derive confidential information on an individual among those in the original dataset V. This approach to disclosure risk was formulated in Dalenius [1].

Key Points

Disclosure risk can be regarded from two different perspectives, according to Paass [2]:

• 1. Attribute disclosure. Attribute disclosure takes place when an attribute of an individual can be determined more accurately with access to the released statistic than it is possible without access to that statistic.

• 2. Identity disclosure. Identity disclosure takes place when a record in the protected dataset can be linked with a respondent's identity. Two main approaches are usually employed for measuring identity disclosure risk: uniqueness and re-identification.

  • 2.1. UniquenessRoughly...