"On June 4, 2026, the U.S. Department of Commerce issued Department Administrative Order 216-26, which limits the disclosure avoidance methods that may be used for Census Bureau and BEA statistical products, identifies coarsening as the preferred approach for protecting confidentiality, and prohibits differential privacy and other forms of noise infusion. This is a departure from previous practice, which left those decisions primarily to the statistical agencies themselves. Several professional associations—including the Association of Population Centers, APDU, COPAFS, ICPSR, and the Population Association of America—issued a joint statement raising concerns about the order and calling for it to be rescinded.

"We created the Disclosure Avoidance Explorer, a new interactive tool that lets you compare six disclosure avoidance methods side by side. Apply each method to a hypothetical census table and see how different approaches balance confidentiality protection with data utility."

Read the complete blog post from the Population Reference Bureau, "What Does 'Coarsening' Look Like?" (July 15, 2026)

See the previous DCSS news item on this topic.