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Cell suppression has drawbacks. It creates missing data, which complicates analyses because the suppressed cells are chosen for their values and are not randomly distributed throughout the dataset. When there are many records at risk, as is likely to be the case for spatial data with identifiers, data disseminators may need to suppress so many values to achieve satisfactory levels of protection that the released data have limited analytical utility. Cell suppression is not necessarily helpful for preserving confidentiality in survey data that include precise geospatial locations. It is possible, even if some or many cells are suppressed, for confidentiality to be breached if locational data remain. Cell suppression also does not guarantee protection in tabular data: it may be possible to determine accurate bounds for values of the suppressed cells using statistical techniques. An alternative to cell suppression in tabular data is controlled tabular adjustment, which adds noise to cell counts in ways that preserve certain analyses.[2]
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