Why are microdata not directly given to users?
Direct access to the data is not possible for data security reasons. In many countries data protections laws restrict access to micro-data. Many countries would not have given their data if a remote access system (like our LISSY system) had not been set up. A registered user must send a statistical program (spss, sas or stata) to this system and he will receive the requested statistics via e-mail. For this reason, the micro-data are made anonymous by the CSOs before being given to us, i.e.
