In a column for FierceBigData, de-identification expert Daniel Barth-Jones responds to an article by Pam Baker that critiqued a whitepaper on the topic by Ontario Information and Privacy Commissioner Ann Cavoukian and Information Technology and Innovation Foundation Senior Analyst Daniel Castro. The debate, he writes, boils down to a simple question: “Does de-identification work or not?” Barth-Jones writes, “How we answer this question really boils down to whether we will define de-identification as ‘working’ only if it provides absolute privacy guarantees,” adding, “Or whether, as we do with many other areas of life (like door locks, seatbelts and other protections), we accept a dramatic reduction from the original risks … as being worthwhile.”
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