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The query programs of certain databases report raw statistics for query sets, which are groups of records specified implicitly by a characteristic formula. The raw statistics include query set size and sums of powers of values in the query set. Many users and designers believe that the individual records will remain confidential as long as query programs refuse to report the statistics of query sets which are too small. It is shown that the compromise of small query sets can in fact almost always be accomplished with the help of characteristic formulas called trackers. Schlorer's individual tracker is reviewed, it is derived from known characteristics of a given individual and permits deducing additional characteristics he may have. The general tracker is introduced: It permits calculating statistics for arbitrary query sets, without requiring preknowledge of anything in the database. General trackers always exist if there are enough distinguishable classes of individuals in the database, in which case the trackers have a simple form. Almost all databases have a general tracker, and general trackers are almost always easy to find. Security is not guaranteed by the lack of a general tracker.

Hypertext systems provide good information management support for a wide variety of documentation efforts. These efforts range from developing software to writing a book. However, existing hypertext systems provide poor support for collaboration among teams of authors. This paper starts by briefly describing properties of several existing hypertext systems. Then several models for forming partitions in a hypertext database are examined and contexts, a partitioning scheme that supports multiperson cooperative efforts, are introduced. The semantic issues involved in defining contexts are explored in detail.

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