Spatial variation of privacy measured through individual uniqueness based on simple US demographics data

Allen Lin; Francis Harvey

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-19950-4_17

Spatial variation of privacy measured through individual uniqueness based on simple US demographics data

Allen Lin
, Francis Harvey

Geography, Environment and Society

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

Previous studies reveal that, using solely U.S. census data, over 60 % population could be uniquely identified with (gender, zip code, date of birth) in 1990 and 2000. This paper extends these studies to examine spatial variation of uniqueness in 2010. We provide (1) the comparison of national level uniqueness between 2000 and 2010, and (2) the investigation of spatial variation of uniqueness in different regions and at different scales. The comparison between 2000 and 2010 reveals that, although overall uniqueness changes little, the uniqueness of middle-age group has significantly decreased. Spatial variation studies show that similar characteristics in age-group uniqueness exist in different regions. Finally, the analysis at different scales discloses that overall uniqueness decreases, and the difference between age-group uniqueness reduce, when geographical scales focus on the cores of urban area. This study offers contributions to geographic information privacy, particularly relevant to reverse geocoding and related spatial aggregation techniques.

Original language	English (US)
Title of host publication	Advances in Spatial Data Handling and Analysis - Select Papers from the 16th IGU Spatial Data Handling Symposium
Editors	Yee Leung, Francis Harvey
Publisher	springer berlin
Pages	289-298
Number of pages	10
ISBN (Print)	9783319199498
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-19950-4_17
State	Published - 2015
Event	16th International Symposium on Spatial Data Handling, SDH 2014 - Toronto, Canada Duration: Oct 6 2014 → Oct 8 2014

Publication series

Name	Advances in Geographic Information Science
Volume	19
ISSN (Print)	1867-2434
ISSN (Electronic)	1867-2442

Other

Other	16th International Symposium on Spatial Data Handling, SDH 2014
Country/Territory	Canada
City	Toronto
Period	10/6/14 → 10/8/14

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015.

Keywords

Accuracy
Census
Privacy
Spatial analysis
Spatial statistics

Publisher link

10.1007/978-3-319-19950-4_17

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Lin, A., & Harvey, F. (2015). Spatial variation of privacy measured through individual uniqueness based on simple US demographics data. In Y. Leung, & F. Harvey (Eds.), Advances in Spatial Data Handling and Analysis - Select Papers from the 16th IGU Spatial Data Handling Symposium (pp. 289-298). (Advances in Geographic Information Science; Vol. 19). springer berlin. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-19950-4_17

Spatial variation of privacy measured through individual uniqueness based on simple US demographics data. / Lin, Allen; Harvey, Francis.
Advances in Spatial Data Handling and Analysis - Select Papers from the 16th IGU Spatial Data Handling Symposium. ed. / Yee Leung; Francis Harvey. springer berlin, 2015. p. 289-298 (Advances in Geographic Information Science; Vol. 19).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

Lin, A & Harvey, F 2015, Spatial variation of privacy measured through individual uniqueness based on simple US demographics data. in Y Leung & F Harvey (eds), Advances in Spatial Data Handling and Analysis - Select Papers from the 16th IGU Spatial Data Handling Symposium. Advances in Geographic Information Science, vol. 19, springer berlin, pp. 289-298, 16th International Symposium on Spatial Data Handling, SDH 2014, Toronto, Canada, 10/6/14. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-19950-4_17

Lin A, Harvey F. Spatial variation of privacy measured through individual uniqueness based on simple US demographics data. In Leung Y, Harvey F, editors, Advances in Spatial Data Handling and Analysis - Select Papers from the 16th IGU Spatial Data Handling Symposium. springer berlin. 2015. p. 289-298. (Advances in Geographic Information Science). doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-19950-4_17

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abstract = "Previous studies reveal that, using solely U.S. census data, over 60 \% population could be uniquely identified with (gender, zip code, date of birth) in 1990 and 2000. This paper extends these studies to examine spatial variation of uniqueness in 2010. We provide (1) the comparison of national level uniqueness between 2000 and 2010, and (2) the investigation of spatial variation of uniqueness in different regions and at different scales. The comparison between 2000 and 2010 reveals that, although overall uniqueness changes little, the uniqueness of middle-age group has significantly decreased. Spatial variation studies show that similar characteristics in age-group uniqueness exist in different regions. Finally, the analysis at different scales discloses that overall uniqueness decreases, and the difference between age-group uniqueness reduce, when geographical scales focus on the cores of urban area. This study offers contributions to geographic information privacy, particularly relevant to reverse geocoding and related spatial aggregation techniques.",

keywords = "Accuracy, Census, Privacy, Spatial analysis, Spatial statistics",

author = "Allen Lin and Francis Harvey",

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AB - Previous studies reveal that, using solely U.S. census data, over 60 % population could be uniquely identified with (gender, zip code, date of birth) in 1990 and 2000. This paper extends these studies to examine spatial variation of uniqueness in 2010. We provide (1) the comparison of national level uniqueness between 2000 and 2010, and (2) the investigation of spatial variation of uniqueness in different regions and at different scales. The comparison between 2000 and 2010 reveals that, although overall uniqueness changes little, the uniqueness of middle-age group has significantly decreased. Spatial variation studies show that similar characteristics in age-group uniqueness exist in different regions. Finally, the analysis at different scales discloses that overall uniqueness decreases, and the difference between age-group uniqueness reduce, when geographical scales focus on the cores of urban area. This study offers contributions to geographic information privacy, particularly relevant to reverse geocoding and related spatial aggregation techniques.

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Spatial variation of privacy measured through individual uniqueness based on simple US demographics data

Abstract

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