Statistical confidentiality
Statistical confidentiality is a fundamental principle of European statistics as established by the framework regulation 223/2009 on European statistics. It defines principles, rules, and procedures to protect confidential data, while still permitting their use for statistical purposes.
EU regulation 223/2009 on European statistics defines confidential data as data which allows statistical units (respondents) to be identified, either directly - by formal identifiers such as respondents’ names, addresses, identification numbers - or indirectly - by using a combination of variables or characteristics such as age, gender, education - thereby disclosing individual information (see Article 2(1)(e) of regulation 223/2009).
Both directly and indirectly identifiable data are deemed confidential, and Eurostat protects them rigorously. This is a legal obligation of all members of the European Statistical System.
Personal data protection
Eurostat must protect all data collected for statistical purposes, whether it is data referring to natural persons (individuals) or legal persons (business entities). Both types of data are covered by the statistical confidentiality framework defined in regulation 223/2009.
In addition, for data referring to natural persons, the personal data protection framework applies. For more information, please consult the comparison of both legal frameworks.
Confidential data protection
Statistical confidentiality is ensured through:
- data security: confidential data is secured and protected by means of physical and IT measures. The data is not available to anyone without sound justification and prior authorisation.
- methods ensuring that no confidential data are published. These statistical disclosure control (SDC) methods refer to:
- tabular data protection methods for aggregated information on respondents presented in tables, using for example suppression, rounding and interval publication
- microdata protection methods for information on statistical units, using for example local suppression, sampling, global recoding, top and bottom coding, rounding, rank swapping, and microaggregation.
Access to confidential data for scientific purposes
At European level, access to confidential data allowing indirect identification of the statistical units may be granted to researchers carrying out statistical analyses for scientific purposes. Being granted access to microdata is subject to fulfilling several criteria. For further details, please consult our website section on microdata.