Removal
Completely removing fields that could be used in any way to identify a person. Considered a strong form of data anonymization.Redaction
Redaction includes removal and other techniques such as blacking data out on paper with a marker and making a photocopy of the result.Encryption
Encryption can be very strong and difficult to reverse. It does present a few challenges such as the generation of a sufficiently strong decryption key. Data anonymization isn't intended to be reversible so the management of decryption keys is also a concern. Ideally, a strong and fully random key would be generated and then immediately erased from memory when encryption completes.Data Masking
Data masking is a potentially weak form of data anonymization that may include data scrambling and character replacement. The advantage of data masking is that it maintains the structure of data such that numbers remain numbers and dates remain dates. This allows anonymized data to be used for system testing without triggering application errors.| Overview: Data Anonymization | ||
Type | ||
Definition | The process of removing personally identifiable information from data. | |
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