About the Data

NSO microdata can be categorized according to sources:

• Surveys (Labor Force Survey, Family Income and Expenditure survey, Annual Survey of Philippine Business and Industry, etc.)
• Censuses (Census of Population and Housing, Census of Agriculture, Census of Fisheries, Census of Philippine Business and Industry)
• Administrative Registration System (Civil Registration documents, Building permits, Import and Export documents, Domestic Trade documents).

Microdatasets, on the other hand, are categorized into three groups, according to accessibility based on the sensitivity of their content and their inherent disclosure risks:

• Public Use Files (PUFs)
• Licensed Files

• Files Accessible on-site (Data Enclave).

Public Use Files (PUFs)

PUFs are anonymized microdata files characterized by a low disclosure risk. They are made available to all interested users, for research and statistical purposes only. Users will be asked to complete an on-line form and agree to abide by the terms and conditions set by the NSO before being provided with the data.

Licensed Files

This approach involves a signed agreement between the NSO and external trusted users to permit them to access semi-anonymized data files. An example of a semi-anonymized datafile is a regular PUF with geographic code being made available for areas lower than the geographic domain level. In order to access these files, users must:

• Demonstrate a need to access the data in order to fulfill a stated statistical or research purpose and
• Comply with the conditions set forth in a formal Microdata Access Agreement.

Those interested in accessing the data under license fills up the Licensed Dataset Request Form. Requests are evaluated by a Microdata Release Panel. When access is granted, users receive them through secure ftp.

Files Accessible on-site (data enclave)

Where the data is particularly sensitive, access shall only be provided on-site in a data enclave under strict conditions, and only for research purposes. The NSO is currently in the process of constructing a data enclave. The data enclave shall be located at the NSO main library. The computers within the enclave shall not be linked to the outside world, i.e., there will be no email or internet access. 

Permission to access the data enclave shall be submitted using the Enclave Access Request Form (which provides detailed information on conditions and rules of access). Authorized users shall be required to sign a formal Microdata Access Agreement. Further, the NSO shall scrutinize the generated outputs in a full disclosure review before they will be released.