An ASA | SoDa Symposium In Celebration of Privacy Week: Balancing Statistical and Non-Statistical Uses of Federal Data: Privacy, Governance, and Public Trust
Co-Sponsored by the American Statistical Association Privacy and Confidentiality Committee and the UMD Social Data Science Center
Two Presentations with Q&A
Wednesday, January 28, 2026
2:00 pm – 3:30 pm (ONLINE)
The U.S. federal government has long maintained a clear line between the statistical and non-statistical uses of the public’s information. The former includes purposes such as producing the Consumer Price Index; the latter includes determinations, such as about a specific household eligibility for a program. This functional separation has guided federal data practice for 50 years, and this safeguard is encoded in federal laws such as U.S. Code Title 13 and Confidential Information Protection and Statistical Efficiency Act (CIPSEA). This Privacy Day webinar examines the origins of this boundary (statistical vs. non-statistical purposes), how it is enforced today, and what it will take to preserve this crucial principle in an evolving federal data landscape.
1) The Evolution and Interpretation of “Statistical Purposes”
Presented by:
Sallie Ann Keller
Chief Scientist and Associate Director for Research and Methodology
U.S. Census Bureau
and
Michael B. Hawes
Senior Statistician for Scientific Communication
U.S. Census Bureau
Abstract:
Data subjects are often told their information will be used for “statistical purposes,” and statistical agencies are legally required to use these data “for statistical purposes only,” but what does this actually mean? In today’s data-driven world, statistics is a far-reaching and expansive discipline, actively used across virtually all scientific fields, and extensively leveraged, with myriad daily implications, both large and small, for the average person. With statistics being so broad a discipline, one might expect that the term “statistical purposes” (intuitively, those actions taken in pursuit of the generation, use, or interpretation of statistics), would be similarly expansive. We find in practice the definition has both been narrowed and expanded over time. In this presentation, we explore how the term “statistical purposes” has been ambiguously defined in law and regulation, and how it has been interpreted in practice by the U.S. federal statistical system. We will analyze how the legal and ethical guardrails of “statistical purposes” align with the core objectives and mission of a statistical agency.
2)The (Real and Imagined) Bounds of Statistical Purpose
Presented by:
Alexandra Wood
Visiting Assistant Professor of Artificial Intelligence, Policy, and Society
Department of Political Science
Purdue University
Abstract:
Statistical purpose is a fundamental yet under-explored concept embedded in regulatory frameworks for privacy, data protection, and statistical confidentiality. As a special case of purpose limitation, it bounds the scope of permissible processing activities and implicates regulatory requirements distinct from those applicable to processing for other purposes. Originally intended to protect statistical integrity in the context of official statistics, the concept of statistical purpose has increasingly been applied in broader contexts. However, there is a notable lack of a consistent definition or clear guidance for determining when information is being processed for statistical purposes. In the absence of such guidance, a very wide range of interpretations of statistical purpose has emerged, often founded in differing assumptions about informational risk. This talk examines these interpretations, the assumptions they rely on, and their implications for policy and practice. Drawing on insights from statistical policy, ethics, and privacy research, it offers recommendations for clarifying and strengthening statistical purpose provisions in law and guidance.
Moderated by:
Jae June Lee
Ph.D. Student, Cornell University
Fellow at National Conference on Citizenship (NCoC)
This event is co-sponsored by:
The American Statistical Association’s Privacy and Confidentiality Committee
The American Statistical Association
Our Mission: Promoting the Practice and Profession of Statistics®
Our Vision: A world that relies on data and statistical thinking to drive discovery and inform decisions.
The American Statistical Association is the world’s largest community of statisticians, the “Big Tent for Statistics.” It is the second oldest, continuously operating professional association in the country. Since it was founded in Boston in 1839, the ASA has supported excellence in the development, application, and dissemination of statistical science.
Our members serve in industry, government, and academia in more than 90 countries, advancing research and promoting sound statistical practice to inform public policy and improve human welfare.
The SoDa Center at UMD
SoDa Symposia highlight the diverse challenges and opportunities in the emerging area of Social Data Science. Combining insights of SoDa researchers and partners from UMD and around the world, these regular virtual events showcase research and expert commentary about advances and open problems in the use of surveys, administrative, and trace data to understand and shape the social world we live in. Ranging from technical challenges of gathering high-quality data, ethical management of social data at scale, or examples of the power of social data science in education, business, government, or civic life, SoDa Symposia provide an opportunity for a broad audience of researchers, students, and practitioners to learn more about the potential of social data science to change the world.
