{"id":1526,"date":"2009-09-08T11:29:59","date_gmt":"2009-09-08T15:29:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.schollnick.net\/wordpress\/?p=1526"},"modified":"2009-09-08T11:30:47","modified_gmt":"2009-09-08T15:30:47","slug":"anonymized-data-really-isntand-heres-why-not-ars-technica","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.schollnick.net\/wordpress\/2009\/09\/anonymized-data-really-isntand-heres-why-not-ars-technica\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Anonymized&#8221; data really isn&#8217;t&mdash;and here&#8217;s why not &#8211; Ars Technica"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The simple fact is that large set of data can be used to ascertain certain things.  For example, using NetFlix&#8217;s data set, the most popular movies among men over 40.<\/p>\n<p>But consider when that data set becomes <strong>huge<\/strong>&#8230;  How many restrictions would be needed to find an entry that is yours?  Even if it&#8217;s made Anonymously..  Let&#8217;s take previous example, have you viewed the &#8220;most popular movie among men over 40?&#8221;&#8230;  How many of entries would be there from your state?  Your zip code?  Born in the same year?  Or the same birthdate?<\/p>\n<p>Take a look at the Ars Technica article, and be surprised how easy it is to reverse the anonymous data, and make it readily identifiable.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8216;Anonymized&#8217; data really isn&#8217;t&mdash;and here&#8217;s why not<br \/>\nCompanies continue to store and sometimes release vast databases of &#8216;anonymized&#8217; information about users. But, as Netflix, AOL, and the State of Massachusetts have learned, &#8216;anonymized&#8217; data can often be cracked in surprising ways, revealing the hidden secrets each of us are assembling in online &#8216;databases of ruin.&#8217;\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>(<a href=\"http:\/\/arstechnica.com\/tech-policy\/news\/2009\/09\/your-secrets-live-online-in-databases-of-ruin.ars\">View the rest of the article at Ars Technica<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The simple fact is that large set of data can be used to ascertain certain things. For example, using NetFlix&#8217;s data set, the most popular movies among men over 40. But consider when that data set becomes huge&#8230; How many restrictions would be needed to find an entry that is yours? Even if it&#8217;s made <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"http:\/\/www.schollnick.net\/wordpress\/2009\/09\/anonymized-data-really-isntand-heres-why-not-ars-technica\/\">[&hellip;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[12,19,64],"tags":[265],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.schollnick.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1526"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.schollnick.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.schollnick.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.schollnick.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.schollnick.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.schollnick.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1526\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.schollnick.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.schollnick.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.schollnick.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<!-- WP Super Cache is installed but broken. The constant WPCACHEHOME must be set in the file wp-config.php and point at the WP Super Cache plugin directory. -->