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Glossary

Differential privacy

Quick answer

A mathematical technique that adds carefully measured noise to data or results so individuals cannot be singled out.

It gives a provable privacy guarantee, controlled by a setting often called epsilon. The U.S. Census Bureau and large tech companies use it for statistics.

It works well for aggregate statistics but can reduce the usefulness of detailed records, so most business data licensing relies on redaction and de-identification instead.

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