8
A GUIDE TO BASIC ANONYMISATION
SuperHungry de-identifies the dataset by removing the names before publishing, thinking that this equates to anonymising the dataset. Albert’s de-identified record published by SuperHungry:
Name
Favourite eatery
Albert Phua
Katong Fried Chicken
Favourite food 3-Piece Chicken Set, 33 past orders
Date of birth
Gender
Company
01/01/1990
Male
ABC Pte Ltd
However, Albert can be re-identified by combining his de-identified record with other records (e.g. personal information from his social media profile). Albert’s social media profile:
Name
Date of birth
Gender
Company
Albert Phua
01/01/1990
Male
ABC Pte Ltd
Any person with sufficient motivation can easily identify5 the person as Albert from the de-identified data if there are other publicly or easily available information to enable such re-identification. If the dataset or combined dataset is sensitive, further anonymisation will be required.
5.
This example re-identifies the record only if this information is unique to Albert in the population.
