Thanks Scott. I just want to say that I had nothing to do with this lawsuit. Also, this comment I posted earlier might be relevant: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=838226

So what's your take on the liability issue?

It doesn't sound like this was a technical failing of netflix' anonymization process but rather a matter of deduction of various independently anonymous pieces of data.

if ya put it like that, it sounds more like a fundamental failing

The thing is that perfect anonymization implies that the dataset would be useless since by definition it would contain no information. If you can begin correlating data points with enough outside information you will be able to extract at least a shadow of the original information.

Well, you certainly deanonymized him..