On the use of economic price theory to determine the optimum levels of privacy and information utility in microdata anonymisation

Statistical data, such as in the form of microdata, is used by different organisations as a basis for creating knowledge to assist in their planning and decision-making activities.However, before microdata can be made available for analysis, it needs to be anonymised in order to protect the privacy of the individuals whose data is released.The protection of privacy requires us to hide or obscure the released data. On the otherhand, making data useful for its users implies that we should provide data that isaccurate, complete and precise. Ideally, we should maximise both the level of privacyand the level of information utility of a released microdata set. However, as we increasethe level of privacy, the level of information utility decreases. Without guidelines toguide the selection of the optimum levels of privacy and information utility, it isdifficult to determine the optimum balance between the two goals. The objective and constraints of this optimisation problem can be captured naturallywith concepts from Economic Price Theory. In this thesis, we present an approachbased on Economic Price Theory for guiding the process of microdata anonymisationsuch that optimum levels of privacy and information utility are achieved. © 2010, University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. Please cite as follows: Zielinski, MP 2010, On the use of economic price theory to determine the optimum levels of privacy and information utility in microdata anonymisation, PhD thesis, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, viewed yymmdd < http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-06092010-182948/ > B10/520/ag