There was a lot of discussion about anonymization at the Privacy+Security Forum in Washington, D.C. this week. Here’s one discussion of some non-governmental recommendations by Lilly Taranto and Paula Garcia of Hogan Lovells:
Anonymisation has always been (and still is) a real challenge for those carrying out clinical research. To shed some light on this matter, the Medical Research Council (MCR) – which is part of UK Research and Innovation – has recently published guidance on Identifiability, anonymisation and pseudonymisation (the guidance). Although the guidance itself states that it has been developed with the participation of the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), it is not ICO-approved and so institutes and organisations should be cautious when relying on the criteria set out in the guidance.
Read more on Chronicle of Data Protection.