Peruco: A Method for Producing Safe and Consistent Microdata

Abstract

A new method for protecting microdata is introduced. This method, perturbation of unsafe combinations (Peruco), eliminates unsafe combinations in the records in which they occur, by replacing them with safe combinations that are also consistent with the other values in the remainder of the records. Consistency is relative to a set of micro-edits that is supposed to be given along with the microdata. A deterministic optimization model is discussed, as well as possible extensions.