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APDU Member Post: Assessing the Use of Differential Privacy for the 2020 Census: Summary of What We Learned from the CNSTAT Workshop

The Census Bureau’s solution to protecting privacy is a new DAS based on a methodology referred to as Differential Privacy (DP). The Census commissioned the Committee on National Statistics (CNSTAT) of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine to host a 2-day Workshop on 2020 Census Data Products: Data Needs and Privacy Considerations, held in Washington, DC, on December 11-12, 2019. This post provides an overview of the findings.

2020 APDU Conference Call for Proposals

APDU is welcoming proposals on any topic related to the privacy, accuracy, and access of public data.  Proposals can be for a single presentation or panel, whether based on a particular project, data practice, or formal paper.  In keeping with the theme of the conference, our interest is in highlighting the breadth of public data to both producers and consumers of public data. Deadline: February 28, 2020.

FY20 Budget Moves from House to Senate

The House has passed appropriations bills to the Senate for FY2020, and there are important developments for statistical agencies. The Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), and Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) each received modest to substantial increases in their budgets.

2019 APDU Candidate Statements

Candidate for Treasurer: Mauricio Ortiz, Chief, Regional Income Division, US Bureau of Economic Analysis I have served as Treasurer of APDU for the last four years while I have continued to work for the U.S.… 

APDU Data Viz Awards: Call for Visualizations

The Association of Public Data Users (APDU) is pleased to announce the 2019 Data Viz Awards. We are once again soliciting creative and meaningful graphic designs that use publicly-available data (for example, data from the Census Bureau or Bureau of Labor Statistics) to convey a compelling point or story.

364 Days Until Census Day 2020!

APDU staff attended the Census 2020: Navigating the National and Local Challenges panel discussion hosted by the Brookings Institution to hear legal, demographic, and Census experts discuss a Decennial Census that has garnered interest both for its importance and for its controversies. Primary questions from the meeting revolved implications of including the citizenship question in the Decennial Census, cybersecurity, and how to encourage residents to respond.

Senate Confirms BLS Commissioner

After over a year of waiting, the Senate has confirmed William Beach as Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics for a term of four years. He replaces William Wiatrowski, who had been serving as Acting Commissioner since 2017.

2019 Annual Conference Call for Proposals

The 2019 APDU Annual Conference is welcoming APDU members and friends to join with our theme of “Wide World of Data” by submitting a proposal for a presentation or panel related to public data. The conference, to be held in Arlington, VA in July 2019, brings together data users and data producers for conversations and presentations on a wide variety of data and statistical topics.