“Sixteen very rich years spent in the statistical service of the Ministry of Solidarity and Health, first on the themes of health professionals, then on the observation of solidarity, have enabled me to acquire, in addition to an in-depth knowledge of social policies, an expertise in the processing of personal data considered to be sensitive: state of health, income of individuals, living and working conditions, etc.
It also allowed me to understand the whole process of producing data on these areas. These data, whatever some (many) may think, do not fall from the sky. In the context of official statistics, these data can be derived in particular from administrative data (including annual social data declarations from companies, various pension fund data, health insurance reimbursements, etc.), or from statistical surveys (of medico-social establishments and services or of specific populations, for example).
These data, used internally for the missions of the ministerial statistical service, offer an infinite number of possibilities for exploitation, particularly when interconnections are made, hence the importance of making them available to other actors.”
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