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Every time I hear "anonymous data", I think of that time AOL published anonymized search logs (for academic research). The anonymization was negligent, and an N

Every time I hear "anonymous data", I think of that time AOL published anonymized search logs (for academic research). The anonymization was negligent, and an NYT reporter de-anonymized and tracked down one of the users with the local & personal info present in the search queries. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AOL_search_log_release https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AOL_search_log_release https://web.archive.org/web/20130404175032/http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/09/technology/09aol.html?_r=1 https://web.archive.org/web/20130404175032/http://www.nytime...

willseth 3y ago
Another fun one was the Netflix Prize, where Netflix published an anonymized dataset, but some researchers at UT Austin were able to de-identify many/most of the users in the dataset by linking them to IMDB profiles based on preferences.
- jeffbee 3y ago
  There's no way most of the users in the Netflix data had IMDb accounts.
  - e12e 3y ago
    From a skim, it looks like their main point is that with 8 movie ratings, it's trivial to link two datasets (eg anonymized Netflix rating to public IMDb profile). https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=view_citation&hl=en&user=rejZUEkAAAAJ&citation_for_view=rejZUEkAAAAJ:u-x6o8ySG0sC https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=view_citation&h... https://systems.cs.columbia.edu/private-systems-class/papers/Narayanan2008Robust.pdf https://systems.cs.columbia.edu/private-systems-class/papers...
  - frankyg 3y ago
    I have thoughts like that all the time but then I remember how many people have accounts at xyz at all and how often I created an account on abc, made a list or two and never returned (until I did). I have over 600 logins saved in my password manager and "holy fuck shit" some of the data on these sites is still "part of me", I just don't actively spend time on it. It's all quite usable.
  - PH95VuimJjqBqy 3y ago
    thank you, that was my first thought. there's hyperbole and then there's whatever that claim was. I don't want to call it a lie so lets just call it a gross exaggeration. many I would have been fine with. most? no way.
deleted 3y ago
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willseth 3y ago

Another fun one was the Netflix Prize, where Netflix published an anonymized dataset, but some researchers at UT Austin were able to de-identify many/most of the users in the dataset by linking them to IMDB profiles based on preferences.

jeffbee 3y ago
There's no way most of the users in the Netflix data had IMDb accounts.
- e12e 3y ago
  From a skim, it looks like their main point is that with 8 movie ratings, it's trivial to link two datasets (eg anonymized Netflix rating to public IMDb profile). https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=view_citation&hl=en&user=rejZUEkAAAAJ&citation_for_view=rejZUEkAAAAJ:u-x6o8ySG0sC https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=view_citation&h... https://systems.cs.columbia.edu/private-systems-class/papers/Narayanan2008Robust.pdf https://systems.cs.columbia.edu/private-systems-class/papers...
- frankyg 3y ago
  I have thoughts like that all the time but then I remember how many people have accounts at xyz at all and how often I created an account on abc, made a list or two and never returned (until I did). I have over 600 logins saved in my password manager and "holy fuck shit" some of the data on these sites is still "part of me", I just don't actively spend time on it. It's all quite usable.
- PH95VuimJjqBqy 3y ago
  thank you, that was my first thought. there's hyperbole and then there's whatever that claim was. I don't want to call it a lie so lets just call it a gross exaggeration. many I would have been fine with. most? no way.

deleted 3y ago

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