Why are some data restricted?

There are many reasons data may be restricted and require an application for use, but the two most common are:

  1. a potential risk of identifying individuals or organizations within the data (disclosure risk)
  2. the sensitivity of the topics covered.

Disclosure Risk

The collection of rich detail about individuals and their experiences, social contexts, and even biological indicators allows social researchers to address ever more complex questions about the world in which we live. However, the inclusion of such detail may increase the level of risk that an individual or organization that participated in the research could be reidentified. This might be because geographic indicators narrow the population of who was surveyed, individuals have unusual characteristics such as extremely high incomes or large families, and/or unique combinations of characteristics make specific respondents more likely to stand out.

The risk is heightened when the characteristics of interest are relatively rare or the focal subpopulation is small. Often this is dealt with by “coarsening” the data to remove some of the detail before sharing the data publicly. Other times, removing detail makes the data less analytically useful. In this case, some detail may be retained and use of the resulting dataset is restricted to those who have research questions that require the more detailed information. The potential for reidentification of respondents may exist within the dataset itself or by combining the data with other publicly available information.

Sensitive Topics

Even when there is minimal risk that individual respondents might be identified in the data, the topics covered may be sensitive enough that it is required to have an explicit need for the data as a researcher.

Sensitive topics include almost anything individuals would not want others to know about them – medical or psychological diagnoses, illicit or underage drug use, sexual identity and behaviors, criminal histories, victimization history, receipt of income-based assistance, even performance on intellectual or other tests.

It’s important to research sensitive topics, but it’s equally important to be intentional about how, why, and by whom these topics are explored.