Elaine Mackey

Data environment analysis and the key variable mapping system

It is now generally accepted that the measurement of statistical disclosure risk should be carried out with reference to the data environment into which a proposed dataset is to be released. This is normally considered through the development of intrusion or attack scenarios. Elliot and Dales (1999) scheme set out a general set of principles for a scenario analysis, the output of which was a set of key variables. In this paper we outline an empirically based method, Data Environment Analysis which operationalises these ideas and a prototype tool the Key Variable Mapping System which has been designed to produce lists of key variables, with much more precise specification than was previously possible.

The regulation of the personal - Individual data use and identity in the UK

The growth in the collection of individual level data and its use as a means of accessing services, tackling crime, informing policy making and marketing products is changing the nature of identity. As more information is collected, each of us leave larger ‘identity footprints’ in a multitude of contexts. Though the streets we live in may be less personally connected, neighbours, colleagues, employers, service providers and the state are all able to know more about who we are and what we do. Consequently, the ways in which we see others and ourselves is changing. Recent legislation specifies a number of good practices in information handling but implicitly accepts the construction and use of massive individual-level record-keeping systems. There is only limited regulation of the use and monitoring of the accuracy of the information held on individual-level databases. Moreover, by linking data and using knowledge discovery techniques it is possible to impute additional information. Using an innovative form field analysis methodology, this article provides an insight into the scope of information gathering in the UK and considers its impact on identity formation. It argues that there is a pressing need for a wider public and academic debate about the impact of the growth in the use of individual level data.The growth in the collection of individual level data and its use as a means of accessing services, tackling crime, informing policy making and marketing products is changing the nature of identity. As more information is collected, each of us leave larger ‘identity footprints’ in a multitude of contexts. Though the streets we live in may be less personally connected, neighbours, colleagues, employers, service providers and the state are all able to know more about who we are and what we do. Consequently, the ways in which we see others and ourselves is changing. Recent legislation specifies a number of good practices in information handling but implicitly accepts the construction and use of massive individual-level record-keeping systems. There is only limited regulation of the use and monitoring of the accuracy of the information held on individual-level databases. Moreover, by linking data and using knowledge discovery techniques it is possible to impute additional information. Using an innovative form...

Understanding the Data Environment

Protecting data privacy and anonymity requires a better understanding of the conditions and mechanisms under which they may be threatened.

The Social Data Environment

In previous work, we have introduced the data environment as a powerful explanatory concept in the realm of data privacy, with specific regard to the concepts of anonymisation and statistical disclosure. Here, we explain the concept more fully and examine how the socio technical system, that is titled social media, embodies and transforms the social data environment. We draw on both a social philosophy and sociological framework, but populate that framework with both agents and artefacts. We argue, that the data environment concept is an important organising principal, which has implications in epistemology and ontology, and for how we understand notions like disclosure, identity, society and perhaps most critically, privacy.