The present article analyses the possibilities and limitations of the utilization of statistical microdata (produced by the Portuguese National Statistics Institute) in social sciences research. In order to do this, we aim to consider the fundamental principle of statistic privacy, on one hand, and the possibilities to research offered by the access to micro-databases, on the other. Thus, we reflect on the anonimization procedures, on the conditions of reception of metadata, on the validation and control of data, namely harmonization and comparability, and on the criteria of information’s
diffusion.

keywords:  micro-data, anonimization, meta-information, harmonization, comparability and diffusion of data.