Ole Schnor (Statistics Denmark), Lars Thygesen, Otto Andersen

The Danish System for Access to Microdata - From on-site to remote access

Statistics Denmark has altered its scheme for giving researchers access to de-identified micro data from on-site to remote access through the Internet. The new system covers data for persons as well as for businesses. The contents of the Danish statistical registers cover many fields of research such as labour market research, sociology, epidemiology and business economics. The strength of the system is that the identification keys (Person Number, address, central business register number and property title number) render it possible to correlate the aggregated data both within a specific year and longitudinally across several years. The data potential for research is unique.

In the mid-1980s, Statistics Denmark experienced an emerging interest among various research environments and ministerial analysis divisions in applying micro data (individual data) for research and analysis purposes. Statistics Denmark is not allowed to hand out micro data because of the rules of confidentiality lay down by the Management and Board of Statistics Denmark. However, it was evident already at in the mid-1980s that not only were the registers of enormous importance to Statistics Denmark, but their research potential was so great that it would be very valuable to actually utilise them for research purposes. Therefore, Statistics Denmark had to find a solution to the problem of access, which complied with the existing legislation on registers while taking into account Statistics Denmark’s own confidentiality principles.

The solution was to establish an on-site arrangement allowing researchers to get access to de-identified micro data from work stations in Statistics Denmark. During the autumn of 2000 Statistics Denmark initiated a pilot study in order to develop a remote access system giving the same security as the well tested on-site system. It was found that such a system could be established and was started up 1 March, 2001. The remote access arrangement has been evaluated after 1.5 years and Statistics Denmark is convinced that the security around the scheme is adequate and at the same level as in the on-site arrangement. Therefore Statistics Denmark will grant remote access to all accepted project data to authorized Institutions. In Denmark we have found it expedient to distinguish between micro data on citizens and on enterprises, the latter containing more problems than the former, since it is difficult to avoid that people getting access will immediately recognize well-known companies even without identifiers. For this reason, we have decided to restrict access to business micro data: Data have to be at least one year old, and access cannot be granted to research departments of private companies.

Session: 4b   Room 2002   Category: Data access: Contexts and solutions

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