Using Tau-Argus and sdcTable to Conduct Secondary Cell Supression for Linked Tables

When a data cell in a table is suppressed by dropping its value based on a primary cell suppression rule, the value of that cell can still be determined if the table, subtable, or linked tables provide totals, marginal totals, or subtotals. Secondary cell suppression is therefore needed to avoid such disclosures. Two software packages are available to assist researchers with secondary cell suppression: Tau-Argus (Statistics Netherland 2009) and R-statistical package sdcTable (Meindl 2010). Just recently, these two software programs have included the option to perform protection for linked tables. We explored the capabilities of the two programs in performing linked-table suppression, identifying the strengths and limitations of each and comparing the results.