A Visual Guide to Practical Data De-Identification

fpf.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/FPF_Visual-Guide-to-Practical-Data-DeID.pdf

What do scientists, regulators and lawyers mean when they talk about de-identification? How does anonymous data differ from pseudonymous or de-identified information? Data identifiability is not binary. Data lies on a spectrum with multiple shades of identifiability.

The “Visual Guide to Practical Data De-Identification” (PDF) by the Future of Privacy Forum is doing a really great job in presenting the scale of data categories from fully identifiable to entirely anonymous, with three key dimensions and tangible examples.

Screenshot of the FPF’s visual guide, licensed CC-BY
2017