Page 329 - Contributed Paper Session (CPS) - Volume 4

CPS2249 Azrin A. et al.
1. Introduction
In 1949, the Department of Statistics, Malaysia (DOSM) was established
under the Statistics Ordinance 1949, which then be known as Bureau of
Statistics. Statistics Ordinance was then revoked by Statistics Act 1965 that has
revamped The Bureau of Statistics into Department of Statistics, led by the
Chief Statistician. Statistics Act 1965 was more thorough and has strengthened
the authority for DOSM in collecting data. Department of Statistics, Malaysia
acts as the main official statistical agency that is responsible for the country’s
official statistics in collecting, processing, interpreting and disseminating data.
In fulfilling the user's demand for the data, DOSM is facing its own challenges
in disseminating the acquired data in a way that the confidentiality of the data
maintained safeguarded. This problem arised not only in DOSM, but also at
global such as in China, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and others. In protecting the data
confidentiality and to meet user’s demands for microdata, agencies and
researchers have developed an array of Statistical Disclosure Limitation (SDL)
strategies (Duncan, de Wolf, Jabine and Straf, 1993).
Through time, the demand for microdata is growing and becoming more
diverse. Microdata referred to records that were collected as input data for the
surveys. These records are confidential subjected to law restrictions and ethical
standards set in place. However, under special conditions, this microdata could
be disseminated to special groups or users. These users may include various
type of people such as government officials, academic researchers,
policymakers, and the general public. Data may be disseminated publicly
without any restrictions or specifically to certain users under specific
conditions. The availability of microdata is often dependent on national laws
and regulations. Special consideration were required in making data and
documentation files available to users. More is involved in the dissemination
procedure than merely providing data access to the users. In disseminating
the microdata, data provider shall assure the users that the provided data is
trustworthy, fully documented, has no confidentiality concerns, and is securely
preserved for future use. An additional aspect of dissemination is the method
or alternative way to share research findings with those interested parties. It is
vital to consider who is using the data and the purpose of the data being used
as part of a comprehensive dissemination strategy. These objectives were not
embraced not only by DOSM, but also by many international organizations,
social science data archives, and survey research projects.
DOSM aims to maximize the data usage by disseminating data and to
reassure the data being used in an optimum manner. If it is regarding
aggregated data, there is no critical issue on the dissemination part. How
about microdata?
Since it is inaccessible to the community, there is possibility on
misinterpreting the released statistics by the media and may lead to

318 | I S I W S C 2 0 1 9