Using Linear Programming Methodology for Disclosure Avoidance Purposes
Laura Voshell Zayatz
RR-92/02, 1-16-92
ABSTRACT
The Bureau of the Census is responsible for collecting information about the country's business
establishments under a pledge of confidentiality and for publicly releasing this information
without disclosing individual responses. The bureau publishes the information in the form of two
or three dimensional additive tables. In order to maintain the confidentiality of responses, the
Bureau cannot always publish every cell value in a table. This paper describes how the Bureau
uses linear programming techniques to determine which cells should be suppressed (not
published) in order to publish as much information as possible while still preserving
confidentiality.
