{"id":12309,"date":"2018-08-08T13:40:14","date_gmt":"2018-08-08T17:40:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/?p=12309"},"modified":"2025-03-24T15:12:04","modified_gmt":"2025-03-24T19:12:04","slug":"anonymizing-indirect-identifiers-lower-re-id-risk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/data-protection\/anonymizing-indirect-identifiers-lower-re-id-risk\/","title":{"rendered":"Anonymizing Indirect Identifiers to Lower Re-ID Risk"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em><strong>Editors Note<\/strong>: This articles covers data anonymization as a form of data masking for privacy protection. In particular, it covers the concepts of quasi-identifiers and re-identification risk and the use of HIPAA data de-identification standards for protecting sensitive data in research through the use of anonymizing techniques like age blurring and demographic attribute blurring in conjunction with re-ID risk scoring.\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Quasi-identifiers, or indirect identifiers, are personal attributes that are true about, but not necessarily unique, to an individual. Examples are one\u2019s age or date of birth, race, salary, educational attainment, occupation, marital status and zip code. Contrast these to direct, unique identifiers like a person\u2019s full legal name, email address, phone number, national ID, passport or credit card number, etc. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Most consumers are already aware of the risks of sharing their unique, personally identifiable information (PII). The data security industry is typically focused on those direct identifiers, too. But with just gender, date of birth and zip code, 80-90% of the US population can be identified.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Almost anyone can be re-identified from an otherwise masked data set if enough indirect identifiers remain and can be joined to a superset population with similar values.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The HIPAA Expert Determination Method <\/span><a href=\"\/solutions\/data-masking\/hipaa\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">rule<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> pertaining to protected health information (PHI) and <\/span><a href=\"\/solutions\/data-masking\/ferpa\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">FERPA law<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> regarding student data privacy contemplate these concerns and require that datasets have a statistically low likelihood of re-identifiability (below 20% is the standard today). Those wishing to use healthcare and educational data for research and\/or marketing purposes need to comply with those laws but also rely on the demographic accuracy of the quasi-identifiers for the data to be valuable.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For this reason, data masking jobs in the <\/span><a href=\"\/products\/fieldshield\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">IRI FieldShield<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> product or <\/span><a href=\"\/products\/voracity\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">IRI Voracity<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (data management platform) can apply one or more additional techniques to obfuscate the data, while still keeping it accurate enough for research or marketing purposes. For example, numeric blurring functions create random noise for specified age and date ranges, such as described in <a href=\"\/blog\/data-protection\/pii-agedate-blurring-iri-fieldshield\/\">this article<\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Building upon the article <\/span><a href=\"\/blog\/data-transformation2\/bucketing-data-values-using-set-files\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">here<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, this example will show how <\/span><a href=\"\/products\/workbench\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">IRI Workbench<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> can create and use set files to anonymize quasi-identifiers.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Start in the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Generalization via Bucketing <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Wizard, available from the list of data protection rules:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/anonymizing-indirect-identifiers-new-field-rule-wizard.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-12316 size-full\" src=\"\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/anonymizing-indirect-identifiers-new-field-rule-wizard.png\" alt=\"New Field Rule Wizard\" width=\"526\" height=\"713\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/anonymizing-indirect-identifiers-new-field-rule-wizard.png 526w, https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/anonymizing-indirect-identifiers-new-field-rule-wizard-221x300.png 221w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 526px) 100vw, 526px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Once the wizard opens, begin to define the source of the values for the set file, including the source format and the field requiring a generalized replacement value.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/anonymizing-indirect-identifiers-new-bucket-set-job-data-source.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-12314\" src=\"\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/anonymizing-indirect-identifiers-new-bucket-set-job-data-source.png\" alt=\"Data Sources for Bucketting\" width=\"600\" height=\"417\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/anonymizing-indirect-identifiers-new-bucket-set-job-data-source.png 647w, https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/anonymizing-indirect-identifiers-new-bucket-set-job-data-source-300x209.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On the next page, there are two kinds of set file substitutions: <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Use set file as group<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Use set file as range<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> options. This example makes use of the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Use set file as group<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> option. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/data-protection\/pii-agedate-blurring-iri-fieldshield\/\">article on data blurring<\/a> demonstrates the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Use set files as a range<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> option. The lookup sets built here will be used to pseudonymize the original quasi-identifiers with the new generalization value. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This page is where the groupings among each of the original quasi-identifying field values is created. On the left are the unique values in the previously selected field. The groups can be created by either dragging and dropping into the group values on the left, or by manually entering values. Each group also needs a unique replacement value. This is the value that will replace the original value in the group. In this example, any value of \u201c9th\u201d will be replaced with \u201cHigh School\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/anonymizing-indirect-identifiers-new-bucket-set-job-options.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-12315\" src=\"\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/anonymizing-indirect-identifiers-new-bucket-set-job-options.png\" alt=\"New Bucket Set Job Options\" width=\"600\" height=\"493\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/anonymizing-indirect-identifiers-new-bucket-set-job-options.png 726w, https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/anonymizing-indirect-identifiers-new-bucket-set-job-options-300x246.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Adding groups until all the source values are covered produces the following lookup set file for anonymizing the education status quasi-identifier:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/anonymizing-indirect-identifiers-education-set.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-12312 size-full\" src=\"\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/anonymizing-indirect-identifiers-education-set.png\" alt=\"Education Set File\" width=\"296\" height=\"319\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/anonymizing-indirect-identifiers-education-set.png 296w, https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/anonymizing-indirect-identifiers-education-set-278x300.png 278w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 296px) 100vw, 296px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>If additional levels of bucketing are required, the bucketing wizard can be run again using this set file as the source.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When the set file is used in a data anonymization job, the source data is compared to values in the first column of the set file. If a match is found, the data is replaced with the value in the second column. The above set file is used in the script below on line 38.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Using Workbench to apply five different anonymization techniques results in the following script:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/anonymizing-indirect-identifiers-anonymize-scl.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-12311\" src=\"\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/anonymizing-indirect-identifiers-anonymize-scl.png\" alt=\"Anonymizing SortCL File\" width=\"600\" height=\"684\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/anonymizing-indirect-identifiers-anonymize-scl.png 740w, https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/anonymizing-indirect-identifiers-anonymize-scl-263x300.png 263w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The first ten lines of the original data are show here:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/anonymizing-indirect-identifiers-example-tab-csv.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-12313\" src=\"\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/anonymizing-indirect-identifiers-example-tab-csv-1024x195.png\" alt=\"Example CSV file\" width=\"600\" height=\"114\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/anonymizing-indirect-identifiers-example-tab-csv-1024x195.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/anonymizing-indirect-identifiers-example-tab-csv-300x57.png 300w, https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/anonymizing-indirect-identifiers-example-tab-csv-768x146.png 768w, https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/anonymizing-indirect-identifiers-example-tab-csv.png 1046w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The anonymized results after running the job are shown here:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/anonymizing-indirect-identifiers-anon-csv.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-12310\" src=\"\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/anonymizing-indirect-identifiers-anon-csv.png\" alt=\"Anon CSV File\" width=\"600\" height=\"121\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/anonymizing-indirect-identifiers-anon-csv.png 976w, https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/anonymizing-indirect-identifiers-anon-csv-300x61.png 300w, https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/anonymizing-indirect-identifiers-anon-csv-768x155.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Prior to these generalizations, the risk of re-identification based on the original indirectly identifying values was too high. But when the more generalized result set is re-run through the <\/span><a href=\"\/blog\/data-protection\/hipaa-re-id-risk-scoring\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">risk scoring wizard<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to produce another determination of re-identification risk, the risk is acceptable and the data is still useful for research or marketing purposes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you have any questions about these functions or re-ID risk scoring, contact <\/span><a href=\"mailto:fieldshield@iri.com\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">fieldshield@iri.com<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Editors Note: This articles covers data anonymization as a form of data masking for privacy protection. In particular, it covers the concepts of quasi-identifiers and re-identification risk and the use of HIPAA data de-identification standards for protecting sensitive data in research through the use of anonymizing techniques like age blurring and demographic attribute blurring in<\/p>\n<div><a class=\"btn-filled btn\" href=\"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/data-protection\/anonymizing-indirect-identifiers-lower-re-id-risk\/\" title=\"Anonymizing Indirect Identifiers to Lower Re-ID Risk\">Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":12315,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,363,34,29,3],"tags":[1358,1891,20,1347,1346,10,14,1305,1352,1219,603,1351,520,789,1350,1348,1345],"class_list":["post-12309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-data-protection","category-data-quality","category-business","category-test-data","category-vldb-operations","tag-anonymization","tag-anonymizing-phi","tag-data-anonymization","tag-data-binning","tag-data-bucketing","tag-data-encryption","tag-data-masking","tag-data-masking-tools","tag-ferpa","tag-gdpr","tag-hipaa","tag-indirect-identifiers","tag-iri-fieldshield","tag-iri-voracity","tag-protecting-indirect-identifiers","tag-quasi-identifiers","tag-re-id-risk-scoring"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v23.4 (Yoast SEO v23.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Anonymizing Indirect Identifiers to Lower Re-ID Risk - IRI<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Use data bucketing to protect quasi, or indirect, identifiers in your data. Anonymize this information to keep your data safe and secure.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/data-protection\/anonymizing-indirect-identifiers-lower-re-id-risk\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Anonymizing Indirect Identifiers to Lower Re-ID Risk\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Use data bucketing to protect quasi, or indirect, identifiers in your data. Anonymize this information to keep your data safe and secure.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/data-protection\/anonymizing-indirect-identifiers-lower-re-id-risk\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"IRI\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-08-08T17:40:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-03-24T19:12:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/anonymizing-indirect-identifiers-new-bucket-set-job-options.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"726\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"596\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Claudia Irvine\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Claudia Irvine\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/data-protection\/anonymizing-indirect-identifiers-lower-re-id-risk\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/data-protection\/anonymizing-indirect-identifiers-lower-re-id-risk\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Claudia Irvine\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/72af50bbb317610e193e96392081f9b0\"},\"headline\":\"Anonymizing Indirect Identifiers to Lower Re-ID Risk\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-08-08T17:40:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-03-24T19:12:04+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/data-protection\/anonymizing-indirect-identifiers-lower-re-id-risk\/\"},\"wordCount\":751,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/data-protection\/anonymizing-indirect-identifiers-lower-re-id-risk\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/anonymizing-indirect-identifiers-new-bucket-set-job-options.png\",\"keywords\":[\"anonymization\",\"anonymizing PHI\",\"data anonymization\",\"data binning\",\"data bucketing\",\"data encryption\",\"data masking\",\"data masking tools\",\"FERPA\",\"GDPR\",\"HIPAA\",\"indirect identifiers\",\"IRI FieldShield\",\"IRI Voracity\",\"protecting indirect identifiers\",\"quasi-identifiers\",\"re-id risk scoring\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Data Masking\/Protection\",\"Data Quality (DQ&#041;\",\"IRI Business\",\"Test Data\",\"VLDB\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/data-protection\/anonymizing-indirect-identifiers-lower-re-id-risk\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/data-protection\/anonymizing-indirect-identifiers-lower-re-id-risk\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/data-protection\/anonymizing-indirect-identifiers-lower-re-id-risk\/\",\"name\":\"Anonymizing Indirect Identifiers to Lower Re-ID Risk - IRI\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/data-protection\/anonymizing-indirect-identifiers-lower-re-id-risk\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/data-protection\/anonymizing-indirect-identifiers-lower-re-id-risk\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/anonymizing-indirect-identifiers-new-bucket-set-job-options.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-08-08T17:40:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-03-24T19:12:04+00:00\",\"description\":\"Use data bucketing to protect quasi, or indirect, identifiers in your data. Anonymize this information to keep your data safe and secure.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/data-protection\/anonymizing-indirect-identifiers-lower-re-id-risk\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/data-protection\/anonymizing-indirect-identifiers-lower-re-id-risk\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/data-protection\/anonymizing-indirect-identifiers-lower-re-id-risk\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/anonymizing-indirect-identifiers-new-bucket-set-job-options.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/anonymizing-indirect-identifiers-new-bucket-set-job-options.png\",\"width\":726,\"height\":596,\"caption\":\"New Bucket Set Job Options\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/data-protection\/anonymizing-indirect-identifiers-lower-re-id-risk\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Anonymizing Indirect Identifiers to Lower Re-ID Risk\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"IRI\",\"description\":\"Total Data Management Blog\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"IRI\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/iri-logo-total-data-management-small-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/iri-logo-total-data-management-small-1.png\",\"width\":750,\"height\":206,\"caption\":\"IRI\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/72af50bbb317610e193e96392081f9b0\",\"name\":\"Claudia Irvine\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fb33dee44756bd13ac23f1342c2bb7b2?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fb33dee44756bd13ac23f1342c2bb7b2?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Claudia Irvine\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/author\/claudiai\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Anonymizing Indirect Identifiers to Lower Re-ID Risk - IRI","description":"Use data bucketing to protect quasi, or indirect, identifiers in your data. Anonymize this information to keep your data safe and secure.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/data-protection\/anonymizing-indirect-identifiers-lower-re-id-risk\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Anonymizing Indirect Identifiers to Lower Re-ID Risk","og_description":"Use data bucketing to protect quasi, or indirect, identifiers in your data. Anonymize this information to keep your data safe and secure.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/data-protection\/anonymizing-indirect-identifiers-lower-re-id-risk\/","og_site_name":"IRI","article_published_time":"2018-08-08T17:40:14+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-03-24T19:12:04+00:00","og_image":[{"width":726,"height":596,"url":"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/anonymizing-indirect-identifiers-new-bucket-set-job-options.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Claudia Irvine","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Claudia Irvine","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/data-protection\/anonymizing-indirect-identifiers-lower-re-id-risk\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/data-protection\/anonymizing-indirect-identifiers-lower-re-id-risk\/"},"author":{"name":"Claudia Irvine","@id":"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/72af50bbb317610e193e96392081f9b0"},"headline":"Anonymizing Indirect Identifiers to Lower Re-ID Risk","datePublished":"2018-08-08T17:40:14+00:00","dateModified":"2025-03-24T19:12:04+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/data-protection\/anonymizing-indirect-identifiers-lower-re-id-risk\/"},"wordCount":751,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/data-protection\/anonymizing-indirect-identifiers-lower-re-id-risk\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/anonymizing-indirect-identifiers-new-bucket-set-job-options.png","keywords":["anonymization","anonymizing PHI","data anonymization","data binning","data bucketing","data encryption","data masking","data masking tools","FERPA","GDPR","HIPAA","indirect identifiers","IRI FieldShield","IRI Voracity","protecting indirect identifiers","quasi-identifiers","re-id risk scoring"],"articleSection":["Data Masking\/Protection","Data Quality (DQ&#041;","IRI Business","Test Data","VLDB"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/data-protection\/anonymizing-indirect-identifiers-lower-re-id-risk\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/data-protection\/anonymizing-indirect-identifiers-lower-re-id-risk\/","url":"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/data-protection\/anonymizing-indirect-identifiers-lower-re-id-risk\/","name":"Anonymizing Indirect Identifiers to Lower Re-ID Risk - IRI","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/data-protection\/anonymizing-indirect-identifiers-lower-re-id-risk\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/data-protection\/anonymizing-indirect-identifiers-lower-re-id-risk\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/anonymizing-indirect-identifiers-new-bucket-set-job-options.png","datePublished":"2018-08-08T17:40:14+00:00","dateModified":"2025-03-24T19:12:04+00:00","description":"Use data bucketing to protect quasi, or indirect, identifiers in your data. Anonymize this information to keep your data safe and secure.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/data-protection\/anonymizing-indirect-identifiers-lower-re-id-risk\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/data-protection\/anonymizing-indirect-identifiers-lower-re-id-risk\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/data-protection\/anonymizing-indirect-identifiers-lower-re-id-risk\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/anonymizing-indirect-identifiers-new-bucket-set-job-options.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/anonymizing-indirect-identifiers-new-bucket-set-job-options.png","width":726,"height":596,"caption":"New Bucket Set Job Options"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/data-protection\/anonymizing-indirect-identifiers-lower-re-id-risk\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Anonymizing Indirect Identifiers to Lower Re-ID Risk"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/","name":"IRI","description":"Total Data Management Blog","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"IRI","url":"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/iri-logo-total-data-management-small-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/iri-logo-total-data-management-small-1.png","width":750,"height":206,"caption":"IRI"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/72af50bbb317610e193e96392081f9b0","name":"Claudia Irvine","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fb33dee44756bd13ac23f1342c2bb7b2?s=96&d=blank&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fb33dee44756bd13ac23f1342c2bb7b2?s=96&d=blank&r=g","caption":"Claudia Irvine"},"url":"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/author\/claudiai\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/anonymizing-indirect-identifiers-new-bucket-set-job-options.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12309"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12309"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12309\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18327,"href":"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12309\/revisions\/18327"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iri.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}