Data Anonymization vs Pseudonymization: Privacy Showdown

Data anonymization and pseudonymization are two methods that businesses can use to protect the personal data and identities of their customers, and they're key components of privacy-compliant software.

But understanding which one to adopt can be tricky. Each one is suited to particular data processing use cases and meets different legal data privacy thresholds, and there are also other practical distinctions to consider.

If you’re trying to work out which approach is right for your company - or which martech to adopt - then this blog is a great place to start. In it, you’ll learn about the differences between anonymization and pseudonymization, and the techniques used by each.

Then, you’ll see how they’re addressed in key global personal data protection laws and read about synthetic data anonymization - an innovative approach that is growing in popularity.

Let’s dive in!

Data anonymization refers to the process of erasing or encrypting private or sensitive information so that the data subject can’t be identified at any point in the future.

And once this personally identifiable information (PII) has been scrubbed by data anonymization tools, the data can then be used by businesses to analyze trends and patterns without having to worry about putting the data subject at risk.

Crucially, anonymized data is also unregulated. This means that businesses can sell it to anyone, or use it for whatever purpose they want.

However, the data anonymization process does also come at a cost. Anonymizing data and deleting personally identifiable data points will obviously limit a business’s ability to drive value and insight from it. So for instance, scrubbed data isn’t very useful for personalizing the user experience that is so vital for a business’ digital marketing.

Techniques of Data Anonymization

In practice, data anonymization is done be creating a mirror image of a database, and implementing one of the following data anonymization techniques:

• Data Masking: Sensitive personal information is replaced with fictional but realistic data, such as dummy names or fake credit card numbers.
• Generalization: Data precision is reduced to make it less identifiable, such as using an age range rather than exact ages.
• Perturbation: Noise is added by slightly altering values to prevent precise identification, such as adjusting a salary by a random amount within a fixed range.
• Aggregation: Individual data points are summarized into broader categories, such as displaying total sales volume by region instead of listing individual sales transactions.
• Suppression: Highly sensitive pieces of data are either removed or withheld, such as omitting social security numbers or names.
• Swapping/Shuffling: Certain attributes within data sets are exchanged, such as swapping addresses between two records so as to obscure the relationship between individuals and their addresses.
• Tokenization: Sensitive identifiers are replaced with equivalents that have no value, such as replacing credit card numbers with randomly generated tokens.
• Differential Privacy: Statistical noise is added to datasets so as to mask sensitive information in a way that still allows for aggregate analysis, such as adjusting query results by adding random noise to ensure that the presence or absence of any single individual does not significantly affect the outcome.

Pseudonymisation (or pseudo anonymized data) is the process of replacing any personally identifiable information (PII) with pseudonyms or aliases in a way that allows for this anonymization to be reversed with the right access.

Like data anonymization, this method can reduce the privacy risks for data subjects, and can help businesses to meet some (lower) data protection standards - including privacy by design and data security. However, pseudonymized data isn’t as risk-free as anonymization, and the information is still considered personal data.

Techniques of Pseudonymisation

In practice, pseudonymisation is done by employing any of the following techniques that replace, remove or transform any information that can be used to identify individuals, and which can be undone at a later date with the right access:

• Consistent Reversible Pseudonymization: Identifiable information is replaced with standardized pseudonyms across the dataset in a way that allows the original data to be recovered using a key or algorithm, such as replacing someone’s name with a unique code that can be reversed using a lookup table.
• Randomized Reversible Pseudonymization: Identifiable information is replaced with random pseudonyms across the dataset, such as generating a random ID for each user that can be decoded by authorized personnel.
• Tokenization: Sensitive data elements are replaced by non-sensitive equivalents that can be mapped back to the source using a secure tokenization system, such as replacing credit card numbers with tokens that can be deciphered in house, but not outside the company.
• Dynamic Pseudonymization: Data is automatically pseudonymized during processing.
• Partial Pseudonymization: Pseudonyms are applied to only part of the data, such as replacing a user’s name and address but leaving their age and gender data intact.

As data privacy regulations become more stringent and data breaches continue to pose significant risks, organizations are exploring innovative approaches to anonymize data effectively while maintaining its utility for analysis and research. One promising method gaining traction is synthetic data anonymization. Unlike traditional anonymization techniques that modify or remove real data, synthetic data involves generating entirely new datasets that mimic the statistical properties and relationships of the original data without containing any actual sensitive information.

How Synthetic Data Anonymization Works

Synthetic data anonymization leverages advanced statistical techniques and machine learning algorithms to create synthetic datasets that closely resemble the original data in terms of structure, patterns, and relationships. This process begins by analyzing the original dataset to understand its statistical properties and dependencies. Using this information, algorithms generate synthetic data points that are statistically similar to the real data but do not correspond to any actual individuals or entities. This ensures that the synthetic data cannot be linked back to specific individuals, providing a high level of privacy protection.

Advantages of Synthetic Data Anonymization

One of the main advantages of synthetic anonymization is its ability to preserve utility while ensuring privacy. Since synthetic datasets maintain the statistical characteristics of the original data, they can be used for complex analyses, machine learning model training, and other data-driven tasks without compromising individual privacy. It also reduces the risks associated with re-identification, as there are no real individuals' data to expose.

Applications and Use Cases

Synthetic data anonymization finds applications across various industries and domains. In healthcare, synthetic datasets can be used for medical research and algorithm development without accessing sensitive patient records directly. In finance, synthetic data enables robust risk assessment and fraud detection models without compromising customer privacy. Additionally, governments and research institutions utilize synthetic data to share insights and facilitate collaboration while adhering to strict data protection regulations.

Challenges and Considerations

Despite its potential benefits, synthetic data anonymization comes with challenges. Generating high-quality synthetic data that accurately reflects the original dataset's complexities requires sophisticated algorithms and careful validation. Ensuring that synthetic datasets do not inadvertently reveal patterns or information that could lead to re-identification is also critical. Furthermore, acceptance and validation of synthetic data by stakeholders and regulatory bodies may require establishing standards and benchmarks for evaluating its effectiveness and reliability.