De-identify, re-identify: Anonymised data's dirty little secret

2021-09-16 08:28

With a little work, people can often recreate your identify from these remaining data points.

Data brokers readily selling location access data without the owners' knowledge amplifies the dangers.

Concerns about re-identification have surfaced of late with the NHS Digital's recent push to collect the public's health data en masse under its General Practice Data for Planning and Research initiative.

NHS Digital had outlined specific data fields that it would transfer under the scheme, which would have allowed it to share that data with third parties.

Each piece of data that you take out lessens the data set's value, warns Eerke Boiten, professor of cybersecurity at De Montfort University's School of Computer Science and Informatics.

The ICO warns that if the data can be re-identified using "Any reasonably available means," then it won't pass muster under the EU General Data Protection Regulations.

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