Author: Os Keyes, Abraham D. Flaxman
Publisher: Scientific American
Publication Year: 2022
Summary: The following article discusses an overlooked drawback of de-anonymizing Census data, in that transgender individuals living in hostile environments may be criminalized. This does not go solely for those undergoing a shift in gender identity, but their families as well, because places like Texas that can charge families with child abuse if they let their child go through with the transition. As a test to see how easily Texas could identify people by cross-referencing multiple different Census surveys, the authors replicated fake Census data and unfortunately succeeded. Luckily, the Census has employed cryptographically-secure techniques that introduce error into published population numbers and have lowered identification rate by 70 percent. However, the authors increased the scope of their simulation, and it was still relatively simple. In short, the Census is making strides to make demographic data only internally traceable but still has a long way to go.