Paul Ohm: Law, Policy and the Limits of Anonymization
Title: Law, Policy and the Limits of Anonymization
When: Tuesday, April 28, 2009 - 4:30 PM - 6:00 PM
Where: Robertson Hall, Bowl 1
Two recent, newsworthy events have upended our understanding of the privacy-protecting power of anonymization. America Online and Netflix each released millions of anonymized records containing the secrets of hundreds of thousands of users. In both cases, to the surprise of many, researchers were able to “deanonymize” or “reidentify” some of the people in the data with ease.
Through recent events like these, Computer Scientists have taken giant strides in developing theories and techniques of anonymization and reidentification. What do these advances in Computer Science mean for law and policy? Nearly every data privacy law separates information into two categories: sensitive and non-sensitive, a distinction challenged by advances in reidentification. This study concludes that these advances will do no less than reshape every privacy law and revolutionize every privacy policy debate.
For more information: Paul Ohm’s home page.
CITP studies digital technologies in public life. It is a joint venture of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the Woodrow Wilson School.em>