4 ms·

Funny, yes, but I honestly think they should consider this.

• gwern 17y ago
  It's been a while since the flurry of de-anonymizing data papers back in 07-08, but my takeaway impression was that you can't truly de-anonymize large datasets without destroying its utility.
  • nlabs 17y ago
    Thats too bad. Sounds like an interesting research area.
  • slyn 17y ago
    Indeed. See this: http://godplaysdice.blogspot.com/2009/12/uniquely-identifying-people-by-birth.html http://godplaysdice.blogspot.com/2009/12/uniquely-identifyin... I imagine gender and DoB factor in heavily to something like a recommendation engine, and I'm sure zip code would come into play when trying to get those last couple percent as is the case with the Netflix prizes.
    • deleted 17y ago
      [deleted]
  • brendano 17y ago
    There's lots of ongoing work on the topic, new conferences, etc. One of the keywords is "privacy preserving data mining".