“It’s None of Their Damn Business”: Privacy and Disclosure Control in the US Census

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The U.S. Census Bureau is implementing new methods of disclosure control that will reduce the usability of publicly accessible population data. To understand the rationale for the cutbacks in access to data, we must grapple with the history of privacy concerns surrounding the census and the government’s response to those concerns. Join historical demographer and 2022 MacArthur Fellow Steven Ruggles as he presents research tracing the history of privacy and disclosure control since the first U.S. census in 1790.

Ruggles is Regents Professor of History and Population Studies and Director of the Minnesota Population Center at the University of Minnesota. He is best known as the creator of the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS), the world’s largest population database, spanning two centuries and 100 countries.

This event is co-hosted by the Columbia Population Research Center and CUNY’s Institute for Demographic Research.