With an increasingly connected and surveilled world, high-quality datasets can be more easily constructed but also more vulnerable to abuse than ever. Although collecting more and better data can provide great benefits to society, such as furthering medical research or targeting public investments to help those most in need, data privacy concerns surface when that information can be de-anonymized and used maliciously. 

The Privacy Research Lab (PRL) at the Urban Institute is working to develop and promote data collection and analysis methods that expand access to confidential data while keeping it just that: confidential. We have partnered with local and federal government agencies and other organizations to apply new data privacy and confidentiality methods so researchers and policymakers can use data to society’s benefit while protecting privacy.

Through PRL, we advance evidence-based public policy decisionmaking under these four areas:

• Safe Data Technologies
• Advancing Rural and Local Economic Development
• Applying Equity Awareness in Data Privacy Methods
• Data Privacy Communications and Education