Re:Avast profits through sales of users’ web browsing habits
by JoeAltmaier on Tuesday December 10, 2019 @09:25AM
(#21752669)
Agreed. For every effort to anonymize data (just remove their name!) there's ten companys dedicated to tracking down and characterizing every individual.
The details are almost a fingerprint. Know enough (maybe 2 facts?) and you can start to re-identify that 'anonymized' data.
Just knowing a rural route code, and the factoid that an embedded development board was purchased there, and you have identified Me.
To really anonymize data, you cant publish any correlations between the stats. Which is most of the value of the stats.
The details are almost a fingerprint. Know enough (maybe 2 facts?) and you can start to re-identify that 'anonymized' data.
Just knowing a rural route code, and the factoid that an embedded development board was purchased there, and you have identified Me.
To really anonymize data, you cant publish any correlations between the stats. Which is most of the value of the stats.