Ever find yourself confused by a data term and wish you had quick access to the definition? We’ve been there too! To help, we have created a glossary of terms relevant to the management and use of data within the humanitarian sector. 

The glossary includes definitions of almost 40 terms that we commonly hear, but may not always understand such as disclosure risk/re-identification risk, the mosaic effect, and sensitive data. The definitions are culled from trusted sources. Where a source is cited, that is the single source of the definition. Where a source is not cited, we have rephrased excerpts from multiple sources to provide the clearest definition possible.

Explore the terms and let us know what we may be missing. Together we will build our data vocabulary. 

Send an email with feedback and ideas to centrehumdata@un.org.

Data Literacy