Confidentiality Issues Arising from the Integration of Remotely Sensed Data with Social Science Survey and Other Self-Identifying Data

遥感技术为改进公共政策所用信息的质量创造了重要的科学机会和可能性。 它通过将对人类活动的实物证据的高分辨率观测联系起来来做到这一点，并提供了将遥感数据与调查研究和其他社会观测数据联系起来的可能性。 这些数据链接可以提供有关广泛主题和问题的宝贵新见解。 例如，它们可以增进对城市发展、农业扩展和森林砍伐等土地使用动态的原因和后果的了解，还可以帮助确定特定地理区域内特别易受自然灾害和环境变化影响的人类活动和社会部门。 然而，这些可能性也在数据质量、数据共享和保密性之间造成了困难的权衡。 随着联邦机构敦促受资助者在保持或增加对研究对象隐私权的关注的同时，广泛提供他们的数据，权衡变得更加困难。 该奖项将帮助支持全球变化中人的因素委员会下属的一个国家研究理事会小组举办一次讲习班，探讨将遥感数据与自我认定的社会科学数据联系起来的科学价值。 研讨会将讨论的议题包括：数据可获得性、保密性和数据质量的权衡;相关的法律的问题;在传播此类数据时处理保密性问题的不同方法的成本和效益;以及处理所提出问题的适当模式。 该小组将编写一份报告，其中将包括讲习班的选定背景文件和小组的共识声明，其中概述讲习班上提出的关于关键概念问题、该领域的现状和进展的想法，以及解决数据和研究管理这一领域中开放获取和保密之间紧张关系的选择。本次研讨会将提供对广泛的用户，包括社会科学研究人员、制作和使用遥感数据和社会经济数据的政府机构，以及对决策和人类及社会动态感兴趣的个人和组织。 联邦机构有兴趣促进科学进步，这种进步可以来自于将空间上明确的和自我识别的数据联系起来。 该讲习班将帮助制定研究和数据共享准则，以协调公开性和保密性的相互竞争的要求。机构审查委员会也有同样的需要。 讲习班的成果还将影响数据收集和分享程序的制定。 该奖项是对美国国家儿童健康与人类发展研究所（NICHD）、美国国家航空航天局（NASA）和其他联邦机构颁发的奖项的补充。

Remote sensing technology creates significant scientific opportunities and possibilities for improving the quality of information available for public policy. It does so by linking high-resolution observation of the physical evidence of human activity, and it offers potentials for linking remotely sensed data with data from survey research and other social observations. These data linkages can provide valuable new insights about a broad range of topics and issues. For example, they can improve understanding of the causes and consequences of land-use dynamics, such as urban development, agricultural extensification, and deforestation, and they can help identify human activities and societal sectors within specific geographical regions that are particularly vulnerable to natural disasters and environmental changes. These possibilities also create difficult tradeoffs among data quality, data sharing, and confidentiality, however. The tradeoffs have become more difficult as federal agencies urge grantees to make their data widely available while maintaining or increasing concern with the privacy rights of research subjects. This award will help support a National Research Council panel under the Committee on Human Dimensions of Global Change (CHDGC) to conduct a workshop to address the scientific value of linking remotely sensed and self-identifying social science data. Among topics to be addressed at the workshop are tradeoffs involving data accessibility, confidentiality, and data quality; associated legal issues; costs and benefits of different methods for addressing confidentiality in the dissemination of such data; and appropriate models for addressing the issues raised. The panel will produce a report that would include selected background papers from the workshop and a consensus statement by the panel summarizing ideas presented at the workshop regarding key conceptual issues, the state and progress of the field, and options for addressing the tension between open access and confidentiality in this area of data and research management.This workshop will provide new insights that are of value to a broad range of users, including social science researchers, government agencies that produce and use remotely sensed and socioeconomic data, and individuals and organizations engaged with interests in policy making and human and social dynamics. Federal agencies have an interest in promoting the scientific advances that can come from linking spatially explicit and self-identifying data. The workshop will help develop guidelines for the conduct of research and for data sharing that can reconcile the competing demands of openness and confidentiality. Institutional review boards have the same need. Workshop results also will influence the development of procedures governing data collection and sharing. This award complements awards made by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and other federal agencies.