4 ms·

Because I know where jeeg274642 belongs in the set of [gender, nationality_and_region, age_group, pregnancy_status, ...]. Just like a Social Security Number, a

by Y-bar 2y ago

Because I know where jeeg274642 belongs in the set of [gender, nationality_and_region, age_group, pregnancy_status, ...]. Just like a Social Security Number, a cookie (or whatever storage tech is used) need not contain the exact data of the individual, it only need to reference or be precise enough it for it to be a means of identifying them.

robertlagrant 2y ago
Okay, but what do you actually do to identify? A social security number is a 1:1 to a person, if I understand them correctly. It's a direct ID number which lots of relatively low-paid, bribeable people can translate into a person's identity through a government lookup. How would you translate those groups into a person? It's a woman who's pregnant, 20-30, in Belfast. Now what?
- Y-bar 2y ago
  Why are you seemingly arguing that the only personally identifiable bits of information are those with a strict 1:1 relation to an individual? And what are you trying to understand exactly? > About half of the U.S. population (132 million of 248 million or 53%) are likely to be uniquely identified by only {place, gender, date of birth}, where place is basically the city, town, or municipality in which the person resides. And even at the county level, {county, gender, date of birth} are likely to uniquely identify 18% of the U.S. population. In general, few characteristics are needed to uniquely identify a person. https://dataprivacylab.org/projects/identifiability/index.html https://dataprivacylab.org/projects/identifiability/index.ht... Another US example: > Mr. X lives in ZIP code 02138 and was born July 31, 1945. These facts about him were included in an anonymized medical record released to the public. Sounds like Mr. X is pretty anonymous, right? https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/09/what-information-personally-identifiable https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/09/what-information-perso...

by Y-bar 2y ago

robertlagrant 2y ago

Okay, but what do you actually do to identify? A social security number is a 1:1 to a person, if I understand them correctly. It's a direct ID number which lots of relatively low-paid, bribeable people can translate into a person's identity through a government lookup. How would you translate those groups into a person? It's a woman who's pregnant, 20-30, in Belfast. Now what?

Y-bar 2y ago
Why are you seemingly arguing that the only personally identifiable bits of information are those with a strict 1:1 relation to an individual? And what are you trying to understand exactly? > About half of the U.S. population (132 million of 248 million or 53%) are likely to be uniquely identified by only {place, gender, date of birth}, where place is basically the city, town, or municipality in which the person resides. And even at the county level, {county, gender, date of birth} are likely to uniquely identify 18% of the U.S. population. In general, few characteristics are needed to uniquely identify a person. https://dataprivacylab.org/projects/identifiability/index.html https://dataprivacylab.org/projects/identifiability/index.ht... Another US example: > Mr. X lives in ZIP code 02138 and was born July 31, 1945. These facts about him were included in an anonymized medical record released to the public. Sounds like Mr. X is pretty anonymous, right? https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/09/what-information-personally-identifiable https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/09/what-information-perso...