A Quantitative Methods Professional Answers Us…
This is a response to previous post from a professional who wrote me, but do not wish to be identified for the moment:
Quantitative methods professional
The idea that a volunteer sample reduces the reliability and the validity of data is today as accepted an idea than the one that the earth is round. [...] There are many articles that deal with the extent of the bias, its reasons, the ways that can be used to circumvent these biases somehow, etc. But one can never really succeed to circumvent them.
[As for Justice Boivin's finding] I have not read the arguments in favour of a voluntary survey and how they think they can avoid the sample biases. Of course there is uncertainty about the reliability of data from the NHS, since we have never done this exercise before. There is one certainty about the fact that the data will be biased, but it is difficult to predict in advance the extent and nature of this bias.
Increasing the number of long questionnaires will not change the bias, and nothing leads us to believe that an advertising campaign can correct the bias. The campaign could very well increase it (especially if only in the two official languages). (more…)
Questions for Statisticians and Specialists in Quantitative Methods regarding the Reliability of a Voluntary Census
In the wake of the decision on a application for judicial review form the Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne du Canada
Federal Court’s Justice Richard Boivin heard evidence and testimonies presented in support of and in opposition to the National Household Survey (NHS) which, being voluntary, replaces the old census long form, which was mandatory under fine and even imprisonment. The judge ruled this week that “there is uncertainty about the reliability of the data that will come from the NHS” … except that the Court is “not convinced that the data of the NHS will be so unreliable as to be unusable.”
Let’s recall that the Conservative government decided to remove the long form from the mandatory status of the Canadian census to make it voluntary instead. To offset a possible decline in participation, it provided an increase of around 50% of the number of long questionnaires (from 3 to 4.5 million households at an additional cost of $ 30 million) plus an advertising campaign to spur participation.
Many statisticians, demographers and researchers have criticized this decision. According to them, a voluntary survey would lead to a significant decrease in participation, particularly in certain portions of the population (the poorest, the least educated, of certain ethnic backgrounds). The result would be less representative and thus biased data which would distort the demographic profiles of country, regions and local communities. However, beyond these general statements, public interventions in the media so far have provided no statistical demonstration in support to this claim. Justice Boivin’s finding seems to confirm this perception.
So I make an appeal to statisticians and specialists in quantitative methods in order to clarify certain key elements of the debate. (more…)
New column: Critique of Canadian census
The Conservative government decided that for the 2011 Canadian census, answer to the long form would no longer be mandatory, but voluntary instead. This decision provoked a sharp polarization between those determinedly for or against it.
Critique of Census observation book offers a critical exploration of the many technical, social, legal and ethical issues raised by such an information production operation about a country and its population.
Other resources:
The Datalibre.ca site maintains a media watch on the 2011Census :
Canadian conservatives battling over the census… in USA
I wrote in July that the Conservative government’s decision to abolish the compulsory nature of the census’ long form probably originated from an observation of the recent controversies surrounding U.S. Census as well as of the potential political risks and opportunities in their import in Canada.
Subsequent conservatives’ statements have amply demonstrated that the rationality of their decision was more one of partisan calculation than of administrative rationality or respect for the rights of citizens. Today, the Liberal Opposition tabled a bill to make the long form mandatory, still along with fines, but no more imprisonment. As if the opposition in the Commons blindly followed to the letter their role in one of the possible scenarios envisioned by the Conservatives.
However, the American inspiration for the strategy and the discourse in support has never been so clearly brought to light than by the statements of Minister Tony Clement on Tuesday. Jennifer Ditchburn of The Canadian Press reports that according to Clement, the enumerators could beat the system and make off with the personal information of Canadians. Although Statistics Canada has clear policies, “some enumerators are recruited in the same neighbourhood as respondents. This means, says Clement, “your neighbour may know some of your most personal and more intimate information.”
The minister described the situation here in the U.S. where, constitution requires, the census must be conducted by enumerators.
In Canada, the census is self-administered … since 1971. One reason for the abandonment of enumerators was specifically related to a matter of respect for privacy. It was less to avoid the risk of espionage, but to reduce the intrusiveness and the intimidating presence of a visit by a possible neighbour and therefore the bias resulting from the reluctance to answer questions honestly, even to answer at all. Indeed Statistics Canada’s policy for telephone follow-up reminders is to rely on enumerators who should not be from the area of citizen contacted.
In short, the cat is out of the bag. Latest Clement’s arguments are clearly American import copy and paste that have no relevance in the Canadian context. So gross an error would have not occurred if the conservative decision had been taken on the basis of some needs analysis to improve the Canadian census. Moreover, if one had wanted to improve the census, one would have amended the long form rather than spend the summer denigrating the questions it contains, and even those he does not…
Sources of free icons to represent interpersonal information processes
Dominique Lamy of Branchez-Vous! Techno recently presented sources of free icons. Among the eight sites, three offered icons useable to produce pictures of interpersonal information processes (PIP).
Iconshock offers nearly a million icons, a number steadily rising. Only a few collections, however, are offered free without conditions. A small number of icons that must be found can be used to describe the processes themselves. Many others to describe the processes’ actors.
Iconza provides free a small number of 112 relatively simple icons whose colors can be customized before uploading.
Iconpot is a directory of free icons collections.
Citizen Awakening of the Data Subject?
In the wake of controversies over the census, Facebook and others
Saturday, I cleaned the house while listening to a lecture by sociologist Saskia Sassen on the evolving concept of citizenship in a globalizing world recorded for the Big Ideas show (mp3, video). The conference focused on the multiple micro changes that globalization causes in the definition and experience of citizenship (or of the political subjectivity, in other words).
Sassen reminds us that while we tend to experience citizenship as an unitary condition, in fact citizenship is made of a whole bundle of components. At the heart of citizenship, there is a bundle of formal rights that are recognized by State. But there are as well around many other social elements that might not derive from our connection to the State (such as the physical environment of the city vs. the countryside). So one can unbundle citizenship to look as how each of these elements emerges, changes and disappears; thus how the whole idea of citizenship is evolving as a result.
This idea brought me back to that of a citizen awakening as data subject. A theme that corresponds to a wish I expressed as early as in 1988 in my contribution to the book Human Rights in Canada: Into the 1990s and Beyond.[1] Sassen’s lecture called this question to me: are we now also witnessing this historic micro change of the addition of the status of data subject into the consciousness of contemporary citizen? (more…)
As for Oil, a Barrel to Represent Data Storage?
At the same last Friday meeting mentioned earlier, I noticed that the page where status of works development was discussed, the chosen illustration stacked drums (or wide cylinders) like those used in information flow charts to describe databases. However, this stack of drums suggested somewhat the form of a metal container drum. That is a figure that clearly evokes the idea of storage!
Indeed, I have always been dissatisfied with the drum image used to designate the phase of information storage or one support for such storage, the disk drive (see Figure 1). (more…)
Illustrations to Sell the Idea of a Device Versus to Explain its Operation
This morning I attended a meeting in the context of the development of explanatory material aiming the general public about an elaborate interpersonal information system that intensively handle personally identifiable information about individuals.
The designers first concluded that before explaining the operation of the system, it was first necessary to defend its existence and relevance. Clearly, from what has been presented, such a goal does not call the same use of image than an explanation of its operation.
The explanation of how a system works requires the use of illustrations relating to information and their handling that stick strictly to the processes’ reality (as PIP can do). By contrast, explanation of the purpose of the system can proceed by evocation of a need to address or through practical scenarios. In other words, modes of illustration are then closer to those allegories and metaphors commonly used by consumer advertising and business communication. (more…)
2011Census’ Theatre of Fears
Do you know someone who completed the census out of fear of fine or imprisonment? Or someone having not completed it who feared it? No? Then ask: What does Harper government fear?
Decision to transform the mandatory census’ long-form into a voluntary survey has led to genuine alarms. Scientists, business communities and local administrations dread deterioration of the data necessary to their work and decisions. Organizations acting for linguistics minorities, women and other communities worry about losing sound figures on which they base their advocacy.
However, accusations that Conservatives try to undermine the gathering of information that might contradict their policies are not plausible. It would be a dangerous game: skewed results from botched census could as much disserve them. It does not fit with a 50% multiplication of long questionnaires (from 3 to 4.5 million at additional cost of $30 million) plus a participation promotion campaign. Moreover, this government’s punctilious programs’ reviews and, especially, this Conservative Party’s wedge politics strategies require very reliable statistical benchmarks. (more…)
New Digital Divides: The Personalized “Filter Bubbles” Menacing Democracy
Instead of linking humans together, could digital technologies isolate them from each other? Could personalization of web services produce ghettos? Could it threaten democracy itself? These are the dangers raised by Eli Pariser, president of MoveOn.org, on June 3, 2010, during the last Personal Democracy Forum.
Ethan Zuckerman reported his remarks. First, an example of a personalized conference:
“What if we came to an event like Personal Democracy Forum, and sorted ourselves by gender, age, political ideology, hometown. Pretty soon, we’d all be sitting in small rooms, all by ourselves. What if speakers then offered personalized talks, adding explosions for the young male listeners, for instance. “You’d probably like your personal version better… but it would be a bad thing for me to do.” It renders moot the point of a conference – we no longer have a common ground of speeches that we can discuss in the hallways.”
“Google uses 57 signals available to personalize the web for you, even if you’re not logged in. As a result, the results you get on a Google search can end up being very different, even if quite similar people are searching. Eli shows us screenshots of a search for “BP” conducted by two young women, both living in the North eastern US. They get very different results… one set focuses on business issues and doesn’t feature a link on the oil spill in the top three, while the other does. And one user got 141 million results, while the other got 180 million. Just imagine how different those results could be for very different users.”
Facebook remains a black box
Yes, Facebook changed its publication of content controls (which may be improperly called confidentiality or privacy controls).
But as rightly points out the tweet of Privacy International signalling its response to this announcement, is the real question not elsewhere? Namely: how Facebook itself uses the information that members place on their pages? “The Real question: How Does Facebook Process Information?”
No matter how you change publication controls or make them more user-friendly, the processing and uses that Facebook makes of the information continues to remain in the dark, poorly explained.
It’s quite like the classic black box. Facebook members know the information they themselves put on their page (inputs). They might better understand what information is published or not toward whom (outputs). However, they do not know exactly all of what happens between the two, especially everything about what Facebook exchanges with its trading partners.
This is where is the core of the processes that constitutes Facebook and its market value.
Encrypted Https Google Search: Effective or Symbolic Measure?
Google recently announced that it now offers the possibility to search for documents in a confidential manner through the secure encrypted internet exchanges protocol Internet Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). Concretely, this means that between your computer and Google’s servers, no one can read directly, nor your queries, nor the searches’ results (just like for your financial transactions are made confidential under SSL).
To benefit from this new “beta” service, one must go to https://www.google.com. Your browser should then indicate that the communication is secure (for example, by displaying a padlock). The localized sites of Google (such as google.fr or google.ca) do not offer this security, nor does this is available either for searching images and videos.
For sure, this is a significant symbolic gesture from the web giant. It has been applauded by the Center for Democracy & Technology as “a shining embodiment of the concept of Privacy by Design.”
For sure, the fact that a player as important as Google provides an increasing number of services under SSL (web access to Google Mail under SSL is already the default option since January 2010) could be a important signal to everyone on the Internet: it may be time to think about protecting a larger number of our Internet communications, even if it means slightly slower processing and transmission times (barely noticeable when one has computer and connections with some power).
However, is that new service actually changes anything to the experience of those whose exercise of their liberties or confidentiality of their work requires them to escape the surveillance of their employers, the Internet services providers (ISPs) or States? (more…)
Presentation of PIP method at Legal IT Conference, April 26-27, 2010
I just received an invitation to make the following presentation at the Legal IT Conference 4.0 (Law + Information Technology) held in Montreal on April 26 and 27, 2010.
UPDATE #1: Access to that presentation will be open and free. It will take place in the Technology Showcase track, on Monday, April 26th.
UPDATE #2: It will be the second presentation of the 15:15 to 16:30 workshop (time was changed)UPDATE #3: Text and visuals now online: English Abstract | Full text: HTML – PDF
I Avoid The Word “Privacy” (And You Should Too)
About one obstacle to thinking about our relationships through information
Notion addressed: Information (including personal information) and information technology play multiple growing roles in every aspect of the lives of individuals, groups and societies.
I was planning to write my own reading of the inquiry and recommendations of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada on the management of personal information by Facebook. However, I too often stumbled on the words “privacy” in the documentation of the Commissioner and articles from the media and other commentators. Too often not to publish beforehand this cautionary piece.
Early in my work, I became cautious with the use of the term “privacy“. It has so many different meanings that it becomes a genuine barrier to communication. More importantly, its use has become customary whenever it comes to discussing personal information handling. So much so that it now constitutes a real obstacle to the exercise of thinking specific usages and their social roles and implications. As a result, we also observe technical, social, economical and commercial failures. (more…)
First Use of Prezi to Animate Pictures of Interpersonal Information Processes (PIP)
I already experimented with Prezi, either to illustrate a concept or to support a public presentation. However, this is my first utilization test of Prezi to animate two complete diagrams describing interpersonal information processes (PIP). Here, it is to explain and compare two different modes of consent to communication of medical information: the ordinary mode and the currently planned one for the health information report of the Dossier Santé Québec electronic patient record project. This animation was produced for a meeting at the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario, on March 11, 2010.
Click the arrows to move forward or backward or move the cursor into the image itself: this presentation has not been programmed for autoplay.
Question: How to Illustrate the Notion of Opting Out?
Opting out is frequently offered in the handling of personal information. It is about the fact that a set of operations will be carried out unless the interested person expresses the desire not to permit it. The most common example is that of merchant who will contact you to offer for other products or services unless you tell him your wish that he does not go ahead. How can we illustrate these mandatory or “by default” operations as well as that possibility that the person can refuse them?
How to Illustrate Consent or Lack of Thereof?
The consent or not to some personal information handling is an important issue. How to illustrate? Here are two figures that compare the place of consent (or lack of thereof) in two contexts: the ordinary communication of medical information between health professionals (Figure 1) and an electronic communication, as proposed by the Dossier Santé Québec system (Figure 2).
Toward the Column’s Earlier Articles
Until they are copied on this site, you will find earlier articles on the Citizen Shift’s site : Living Between the Lines
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