  The eruption of big data with the increasing collection and processing of
vast volumes and variety of data have led to breakthrough discoveries and
innovation in science, engineering, medicine, commerce, criminal justice, and
national security that would not have been possible in the past. While there
are many benefits to the collection and usage of big data, there are also
growing concerns among the general public on what personal information is
collected and how it is used. In addition to legal policies and regulations,
technological tools and statistical strategies also exist to promote and
safeguard individual privacy, while releasing and sharing useful
population-level information. In this overview, I introduce some of these
approaches, as well as the existing challenges and opportunities in statistical
data privacy research and applications to better meet the practical needs of
privacy protection and information sharing.
