MPC Enables Evidence-Based Policymaking
The U.S. Commission on Evidence-Based Policymaking issued its bipartisan report in September 2017 and unanimously found that technological developments are changing the way data analysis can be performed, particularly in terms of privacy protections and security. Insights gained from these developments make it possible to improve informed government decision-making and statistic generation.
In particular, secure multi-party computation (MPC) preserves privacy through encrypted data analysis, overcoming the risk of data vulnerability and identifiability. This is especially useful in policymaking, as issues can be addressed and identified using real data without actually sharing an identifiable form of records. Bipartisan Policy Center includes the wage report conducted by the Hariri Institute-affiliated Boston Women’s Workforce Council as a strong use of MPC in which the method was used to calculate the average wages for men and women and provide insight into gender pay gaps without knowing the specific sources of these disparities and without exploiting specific salary information.
With the possibility to improve data sharing across firms and agencies, Congress is now introducing pieces of legislation that would encourage the use of multi-party computation to conduct analysis and produce policies.