2 Alternate Questions

Enclosure 1: Alternate Wordings for Re-identification Questions

Alternate 1: Census Example

Though hacking and data breaches have received a lot of media attention lately, they are not the only way that the privacy of your information is at risk. It could also be possible for someone to use anonymous Census Bureau data and combine it with another information source to figure out identifying information about a person or address.

For example, someone could combine Census data about a small geographic area with other publicly-available information and find out that a specific household on a particular block has seven people living in it, including three unrelated people and two adopted children.

Have you ever heard of information about individuals being discovered in this way?

Alternate 2: No Example

Though hacking and data breaches have received a lot of media attention lately, they are not the only way that the privacy of your information is at risk. When governments or other institutions release data, they remove identifying information such as your name, address, and birthdate. However, it could be possible for someone to combine the anonymous data with another information source and match the information with its true owner. If this happens, your private information may be identified.

Have you ever heard of information about individuals being discovered in this way?

Alternate 3: Taxi Cab Example

Though hacking and data breaches have received a lot of media attention lately, they are not the only way that the privacy of your information is at risk. It could also be possible for someone to use anonymous data and combine it with another information source to figure out identifying information about a person or address.

For example, the City of New York released an anonymous database of all taxicab rides in a year. Using public photos of people climbing into cabs, someone was able to match individual people with times, locations, fares, and tips for specific rides.

Have you ever heard of information about individuals being discovered in this way?

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