An Overview of Disclosure Principles
Colleen Sullivan
RR 92//09
ABSTRACT
The Bureau of the Census operates under Title 13 of the U.S. Code which prohibits the Bureau
from making "any publication whereby the data furnished by any particular establishment or
individual under this title can be identified." This rule prohibits the Bureau from publishing a
summary table that enables a data user to derive detailed information about an individual
respondent. To ensure our tables do not violate disclosure rules implied by Title 13, they must
first be subjected to an analytical procedure referred to as disclosure analysis. Disclosure analysis
begins with the simple principle that we must not directly publish data received from individuals
who respond to our Economic Surveys and censuses. This paper provides a description of
sensitive data and of the cell suppression method that is used to protect the sensitive data in
publications.
