This is true but it’s quite possible to correct for unique or infrequently occurring combinations so privacy is still preserved and data are made available.
It’s not that hard to design data release to compensate for privacy protections and statistically test for a specific level of risk. There’s a whole body of work on statistical disclosure control and there’s plenty of open source or cheap enough privacy enhancing technology available.
I’m not familiar with CA, but I expect they have someone on staff who can produce a “safe” dataset that preserve privacy and still allows for this question to be researched by low level geography, demographic, and socioeconomic factors.
It’s not that hard to design data release to compensate for privacy protections and statistically test for a specific level of risk. There’s a whole body of work on statistical disclosure control and there’s plenty of open source or cheap enough privacy enhancing technology available.
I’m not familiar with CA, but I expect they have someone on staff who can produce a “safe” dataset that preserve privacy and still allows for this question to be researched by low level geography, demographic, and socioeconomic factors.