PETs Use Case: Measuring Digital Literacy with Telemetry Data Using Differential Privacy

Digital literacy, loosely defined as competency with a range of digital technologies, is a key skill for full social and democratic participation, but it is a difficult thing to measure across a large population. Having accurate data about how people use technology can inform how educators, policymakers, and technology companies make decisions and are especially important for addressing the digital divide. To help address this gap, Microsoft used telemetry signals from a segment of Windows machines owned by U.S. based consumers to indirectly measure digital literacy.