dualitytech.com Open in urlscan Pro
2600:9000:237d:b600:2:d710:2680:93a1  Public Scan

Form analysis
3 forms found in the DOM

GET https://dualitytech.com/search/

<form class="elementor-search-form" role="search" action="https://dualitytech.com/search/" method="get">
  <div class="elementor-search-form__container">
    <div class="elementor-search-form__icon">
      <i aria-hidden="true" class="fas fa-search"></i> <span class="elementor-screen-only">Search</span>
    </div>
    <input placeholder="Search..." class="elementor-search-form__input" type="search" name="q" title="Search" value="">
  </div>
</form>

GET https://dualitytech.com/search/

<form class="elementor-search-form" role="search" action="https://dualitytech.com/search/" method="get">
  <div class="elementor-search-form__container">
    <div class="elementor-search-form__icon">
      <i aria-hidden="true" class="fas fa-search"></i> <span class="elementor-screen-only">Search</span>
    </div>
    <input placeholder="Search..." class="elementor-search-form__input" type="search" name="q" title="Search" value="">
  </div>
</form>

POST #

<form class="acsb-form" data-acsb-search="form" enctype="multipart/form-data" action="#" method="POST"> <input type="text" tabindex="0" name="acsb_search" autocomplete="off" placeholder="Unclear content? Search in dictionary..."
    aria-label="Unclear content? Search in dictionary..."> <i class="acsbi-search"></i> <i class="acsbi-chevron_down"></i> </form>

Text Content

Use Website In a Screen-Reader Mode
Skip to Content
↵ENTER
Skip to Menu
↵ENTER
Skip to Footer
↵ENTER

Consent to Cookies & Data processing
On this website we use cookies and similar functions to process end device
information and personal data. The processing is used for purposes such as to
integrate content, external services and elements from third parties,
statistical analysis/measurement, personalized advertising and the integration
of social media. Depending on the function, data is passed on to up to 22 third
parties and processed by them. This consent is voluntary, not required for the
use of our website and can be revoked at any time using the icon on the bottom
left.
Function
Marketing
Preferences
Measurement
Other
Social media
Reject all Accept allSave + Exit
Customize your choice | Cookies | Privacy notice

powered by consentmanager.net

Skip to content
Platform


PLATFORM OVERVIEW




QUERY ENGINE


MACHINE LEARNING AND ANALYTICS


OPEN SOURCE TECH


Use Case


FINANCIAL SERVICES




FRAUD PREVENTION


ANTI MONEY LAUNDERING


TRADE FINANCING


GOVERNMENT




SECURE INVESTIGATIONS


HEALTHCARE




REAL WORLD EVIDENCE


GENOME WIDE ASSOCIATION STUDIES


OTHER




TARGETED OFFERS

Partners


TECHNOLOGY




GOOGLE


IBM


INTEL


ORACLE


OPEN SOURCE




OPEN FHE

Resources


BLOG


RESOURCE HUB


DEMO LIBRARY

Company


ABOUT US


EVENTS


NEWS


CAREERS

Contact us

Search
 * Platform
   
   
   * * * PLATFORM OVERVIEW
         
         
         
         
         QUERY ENGINE
         
         
         MACHINE LEARNING AND ANALYTICS
         
         
         OPEN SOURCE TECH
         
         
 * Use Case
   
   
   * * * FINANCIAL SERVICES
         
         
         
         
         FRAUD PREVENTION
         
         
         ANTI MONEY LAUNDERING
         
         
         TRADE FINANCING
         
         
         GOVERNMENT
         
         
         
         
         SECURE INVESTIGATIONS
         
         
         HEALTHCARE
         
         
         
         
         REAL WORLD EVIDENCE
         
         
         GENOME WIDE ASSOCIATION STUDIES
         
         
         OTHER
         
         
         
         
         TARGETED OFFERS
 * Partners
   
   
   * * * COLLABORATION HUB
         
         
         
         
         GOOGLE
         
         
         IBM
         
         
         INTEL
         
         
         ORACLE
         
         
         
 * Resources
   
   
   * * * BLOG
         
         
         RESOURCE HUB
         
         
         DEMO LIBRARY
 * Company
   
   
   * * * ABOUT US
         
         
         EVENTS
         
         
         NEWS
         
         
         CAREERS

Contact us

Search
Back


DATA ANONYMIZATION TECHNIQUES: PROS AND CONS


Tova Dvorin|
February 15, 2023


Learn more about secure, collaborative computing Request a demo


Back


DATA ANONYMIZATION TECHNIQUES: PROS AND CONS

Tova Dvorin|
February 15, 2023


Learn more about secure, collaborative computing Request a demo


Post

Data analysis is a central part of business operations today as it helps
organizations save cost and generate new revenue, in many cases by gaining
insight into customer preferences and maximizing returns by customizing their
offerings. However, some of the data that is held by businesses is sensitive
with potential to  compromise user privacy and security. As a result, several
regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Health
Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), and the California
Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) have been developed.

Data anonymization is a method commonly employed by businesses to enable the use
of the information they have without comprising user privacy and security.  In
this blog, we will examine data anonymization as an approach, its drawbacks, and
its advantages.  

What is Data Anonymization?

Data anonymization is the process of removing or hashing various data points
that link a particular piece of data to an individual. This process lets
organizations store and exchange customer data that can be used for purposes
such as analytics, visualization, or sharing with third parties without
revealing any connection of the data to a particular person.

Data anonymization usually retains as much data as possible, and the anonymized
data tends to resemble the original dataset yet with less granularity. For
example, if your organization gathers full DOB (mm/dd/yyyy), it can be
anonymized by hiding the month and day and retaining only the year, thereby not
exposing the personally identifiable information (PII). 


DATA ANONYMIZATION TECHNIQUES

Here are some of the most common data anonymization techniques employed today.


DATA MASKING

Data masking involves creating a fake,  but structurally similar version of your
data. This is accomplished through modification techniques such as shuffling,
simple word or character substitution, encryption, or masking out certain data.
For example, the letter “R” can be masked as “L” through substitution masking,
or credit card numbers masked out as “**** **** **** 7598.”


PSEUDONYMIZATION

Pseudonymization is the process of removing identifiers from a data set and
replacing them with a pseudonym. The main aim of this anonymization technique is
to ensure that particular data can’t be matched to an identifiable person unless
it is combined with a separate set of information.

A simple method of pseudonymizing data is substituting a person’s name with a
fake name (a pseudonym.) For example, if a user submits the name “Jane” during
registration, your main database can simply store it as “Person 2647.” The
algorithm mapping Person 2647 to Jane can then be stored in another secure
database.


GENERALIZATION

Generalization is the process of removing more specific aspects of data to
reduce its identifiability. This is essentially like zooming out, where you hide
the finer details but still maintain a high level of accuracy that can be used
for analysis.  For example, if you have a data set that states the age of each
person, it could be generalized using categories such as 21 to 25 and 26 to 30.
You can also generalize an address by removing the house and block number while
retaining the street name, city, or zip code.


DATA SWAPPING

Data swapping is a simple method of anonymization that involves switching
attributes in a certain column of data with others in the same column. This
means that you will end up with a shuffled database that does not disclose any
specific information about any natural person at the end of the process. 

Assume that you have the database below.

First Name Last Name D.O.B City John  Maxwell 12/4/1985 London Claire Cook
3/7/1994 New York Matt Jansen 5/10/1991 Amsterdam Susan Clark 17/11/1989
Stockholm

The data can be swapped as shown below to create anonymity.

First Name Last Name D.O.B City Matt  Clark  5/10/1991 London Claire Maxwell
12/4/1985 Amsterdam  Susan  Cook  17/11/1989 Stockholm John Jansen 3/7/1994 New
York 



THE PROS & CONS OF DATA ANONYMIZATION

There are many advantages derived from data anonymization which mostly center on
privacy.


ADVANTAGES OF DATA ANONYMIZATION

PREVENTS DATA MISUSE

According to the 2021 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report, insiders are
responsible for around 22% of security incidents. Data anonymization helps 
prevent unintentional misuse or exposure by users authorized to access sensitive
data.

EASY TO IMPLEMENT

Anonymization mostly uses simple algorithms to swap, generalize, pseudonymize,
or mask particular data. This makes the process cost effective, fast, and easy.

ACTS AS A DAMAGE CONTROL MEASURE

No system is 100% foolproof, so you always need to prepare for possible
infiltration. But in such a case, data anonymization can help protect sensitive
data from compromise as the data wouldn’t make much sense to the attacker. The
process also helps curtail data loss damages in a database breach.

REGULATORY COMPLIANCE

The European Union’s GDPR requires that data of individuals living in the EU
undergo pseudonymization/anonymization. From there, the data is no longer
classified as personal data, and it can be used for broader purposes without
breaching compliance regulations.

ENHANCES BUSINESS PERFORMANCE

Since anonymized data can be analyzed and used without breaching compliance
standards, businesses can use the data to get insights into their customers and
offer better and improved services.

PROTECTS BUSINESS AND BRAND REPUTATION

Data anonymization is part of the larger duty of an organization to protect
sensitive, personal, and confidential data The loss or breach of this
information can lead to a possible loss of trust and market share.

 


DISADVANTAGES OF DATA ANONYMIZATION

LESS ACCURATE ANALYSIS

Reducing the granularity of data stored and analyzed, results in less meaningful
information and less accurate insights. 

DOESN’T MAINTAIN DATA RELATIONSHIPS

Data anonymization reduces the granularity and the accuracy of the data,  hence
in some cases scrambles the relationships between data points. The relationships
that are lost are critical for any artificial intelligence or data science
activity. Therefore, anonymized data is limited in the utility that can be
derived from it.

ONLY USEFUL FOR AGGREGATE DATA

Data anonymization is only useful if you need to summarize aggregate data, the
goal of these types of methods is to perform statistics on the data sets. The
technique cannot be used to analyze individual record-level data, in which the
personally identifiable data is highly relevant to the analysis. In other cases,
like in health research, this means that if analysis reveals that a specific
subject is at high risk for a fatal disease, there is no way to identify that
individual to alert them of findings and get this critical information to the
individual whose health is at risk. Data anonymization also renders the data
useless for the personalization of targeted offers, as the ability to connect
insights with an individual has been destroyed.  

PRIVACY RISK REMAINS

Most forms of data anonymization can be reverse engineered by acquiring an
external data set. For example, in the case of pseudonymization, if an insider
already has access to pseudonymized data, they would only need to gain access to
the pseudonym database to de-anonymize the entire data set. In a recent case, a
newspaper purchased anonymized Grindr user data from a 3rd party broker and
device ID and location data to re-identify the account as having belonged to a
local priest. The newspaper published the information and the priest
subsequently resigned.  Although the risk is reduced, it is far too easy to
re-identify anonymized data.

Data cannot be linked across multiple data sources

In cases where one would like to link data on a record level across multiple
databases, for example, combining patient data from a genomic database, a
clinical database, and a wearable database. Or in a fintech setting linking data
on individuals for banks, telcos, and insurance cannot be done, and the key on
which the records are linked is exactly the identifiers these techniques
eliminate.

Control over data usage in collaboration settings

Anonymization techniques do not allow the data owners to have any control over
what is done with the data once anonymized and transferred to a third party.
Once the 3rd party receives the anonymized data it can use it in many ways,
including to re-identify the data, like what happened in the famous Netflix data
de-anonymization scandal.

Data Anonymization Techniques – Pros and Cons

The main benefits of data anonymization are that it is an easy, inexpensive way
to protect privacy when performing analysis on aggregated or individual data.
However, in most cases, the shortcomings far outweigh the benefits. Data
anonymization produces less accurate results and does not allow for data
linkage. It’s also not very secure and re-identification is easily achieved.
Neither does it allow any control over how the data and models are used, or
protection of the data and model IP. Yet, perhaps the most challenging aspect of
data anonymization comes when one wants to collaborate with 3rd parties. Data
cannot be linked across multiple databases when it’s anonymized. The same goes
for cases when one aggregates anonymized data, you cannot remove deduplications
and create biased data sets.

Data anonymization techniques are mentioned explicitly as a required or accepted
technique by many data privacy regulations, but that doesn’t mean they are
secure, it really depends on the type of analysis and utility one is aiming to
gain. The selection of privacy enhancing tools and technologies needs to be
considered on a case-by-case basis, but data anonymization should be used very
cautiously as it has been proven to be fairly easy to breach. Data-driven
enterprises looking for ways to derive more value from data require a holistic
privacy preserving data collaboration platform that allows flexible selection
and combination of multiple privacy enhancing technologies (PETs) as needed
across the organization and data sources. 

See how enterprises are using Duality in our Demo Library.

 

You might also like


DATA CLEAN ROOMS: ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES

Phoebe Spanier March 28, 2023


WHAT IS A DATA CLEAN ROOM? WHAT DCRS CAN (AND CAN’T) DO

Phoebe Spanier March 21, 2023


INTEL, DUALITY, AND SECURITY IN LIFE SCIENCES 

Emory Walsh March 13, 2023


DUALITY DEEPENS INVESTMENT INTO GOVERNMENT SECTOR

Marcella Arthur February 23, 2023
Sign up for more knowledge and insights from our experts


Linkedin Twitter

ABOUT DUALITY

 * Company
 * Careers



PLATFORM

 * Platform Overview
 * Query Engine
 * Machine Learning and Analytics

INDUSTRY SOLUTIONS

 * Financial Services
 * Healthcare
 * Government



PARTNERS

 * Collaboration Hub
 * Intel
 * Oracle
 * IBM
 * Google



NEWS

 * Events
 * Blog



CONTACT US

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR MONTHLY NEWSLETTER



All rights reserved to © Duality 2022
 * Terms of Use
 * Privacy
 * Cookies Policy

Privacy settings

English
Accessibility Adjustments
Reset Settings Statement Hide Interface

Choose the right accessibility profile for you
OFF ON
Seizure Safe Profile Clear flashes & reduces color
This profile enables epileptic and seizure prone users to browse safely by
eliminating the risk of seizures that result from flashing or blinking
animations and risky color combinations.
OFF ON
Vision Impaired Profile Enhances website's visuals
This profile adjusts the website, so that it is accessible to the majority of
visual impairments such as Degrading Eyesight, Tunnel Vision, Cataract,
Glaucoma, and others.
OFF ON
ADHD Friendly Profile More focus & fewer distractions
This profile significantly reduces distractions, to help people with ADHD and
Neurodevelopmental disorders browse, read, and focus on the essential elements
of the website more easily.
OFF ON
Cognitive Disability Profile Assists with reading & focusing
This profile provides various assistive features to help users with cognitive
disabilities such as Autism, Dyslexia, CVA, and others, to focus on the
essential elements of the website more easily.
OFF ON
Keyboard Navigation (Motor) Use website with the keyboard
This profile enables motor-impaired persons to operate the website using the
keyboard Tab, Shift+Tab, and the Enter keys. Users can also use shortcuts such
as “M” (menus), “H” (headings), “F” (forms), “B” (buttons), and “G” (graphics)
to jump to specific elements.

Note: This profile prompts automatically for keyboard users.
OFF ON
Blind Users (Screen Reader) Optimize website for screen-readers
This profile adjusts the website to be compatible with screen-readers such as
JAWS, NVDA, VoiceOver, and TalkBack. A screen-reader is software that is
installed on the blind user’s computer and smartphone, and websites should
ensure compatibility with it.

Note: This profile prompts automatically to screen-readers.
Content Adjustments
Content Scaling
Default

Readable Font
Highlight Titles
Highlight Links
Text Magnifier
Adjust Font Sizing
Default

Align Center
Adjust Line Height
Default

Align Left
Adjust Letter Spacing
Default

Align Right
Color Adjustments
Dark Contrast
Light Contrast
High Contrast
High Saturation
Adjust Text Colors
Cancel
Monochrome
Adjust Title Colors
Cancel
Low Saturation
Adjust Background Colors
Cancel
Orientation Adjustments
Mute Sounds
Hide Images
Read Mode
Reading Guide
Useful Links
Select an option Home Header Footer Main Content
Stop Animations
Reading Mask
Highlight Hover
Highlight Focus
Big Black Cursor
Big White Cursor
HIDDEN_ADJUSTMENTS
Keyboard Navigation
Accessible Mode
Screen Reader Adjustments
Read Mode
Web Accessibility By
Learn More
Choose the Interface Language
English
Español
Deutsch
Português
Français
Italiano
עברית
繁體中文
Pусский
عربى
عربى
Nederlands
繁體中文
日本語
Polski
Türk
Accessibility StatementCompliance status

We firmly believe that the internet should be available and accessible to anyone
and are committed to providing a website that is accessible to the broadest
possible audience, regardless of ability.

To fulfill this, we aim to adhere as strictly as possible to the World Wide Web
Consortium’s (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG 2.1) at the AA
level. These guidelines explain how to make web content accessible to people
with a wide array of disabilities. Complying with those guidelines helps us
ensure that the website is accessible to blind people, people with motor
impairments, visual impairment, cognitive disabilities, and more.

This website utilizes various technologies that are meant to make it as
accessible as possible at all times. We utilize an accessibility interface that
allows persons with specific disabilities to adjust the website’s UI (user
interface) and design it to their personal needs.

Additionally, the website utilizes an AI-based application that runs in the
background and optimizes its accessibility level constantly. This application
remediates the website’s HTML, adapts its functionality and behavior for
screen-readers used by blind users, and for keyboard functions used by
individuals with motor impairments.

If you wish to contact the website’s owner please use the website's form

Screen-reader and keyboard navigation

Our website implements the ARIA attributes (Accessible Rich Internet
Applications) technique, alongside various behavioral changes, to ensure blind
users visiting with screen-readers can read, comprehend, and enjoy the website’s
functions. As soon as a user with a screen-reader enters your site, they
immediately receive a prompt to enter the Screen-Reader Profile so they can
browse and operate your site effectively. Here’s how our website covers some of
the most important screen-reader requirements:

 1. Screen-reader optimization: we run a process that learns the website’s
    components from top to bottom, to ensure ongoing compliance even when
    updating the website. In this process, we provide screen-readers with
    meaningful data using the ARIA set of attributes. For example, we provide
    accurate form labels; descriptions for actionable icons (social media icons,
    search icons, cart icons, etc.); validation guidance for form inputs;
    element roles such as buttons, menus, modal dialogues (popups), and others. 
    
    Additionally, the background process scans all of the website’s images. It
    provides an accurate and meaningful image-object-recognition-based
    description as an ALT (alternate text) tag for images that are not
    described. It will also extract texts embedded within the image using an OCR
    (optical character recognition) technology. To turn on screen-reader
    adjustments at any time, users need only to press the Alt+1 keyboard
    combination. Screen-reader users also get automatic announcements to turn
    the Screen-reader mode on as soon as they enter the website.
    
    These adjustments are compatible with popular screen readers such as JAWS,
    NVDA, VoiceOver, and TalkBack.
    
    
 2. Keyboard navigation optimization: The background process also adjusts the
    website’s HTML and adds various behaviors using JavaScript code to make the
    website operable by the keyboard. This includes the ability to navigate the
    website using the Tab and Shift+Tab keys, operate dropdowns with the arrow
    keys, close them with Esc, trigger buttons and links using the Enter key,
    navigate between radio and checkbox elements using the arrow keys, and fill
    them in with the Spacebar or Enter key.
    
    Additionally, keyboard users will find content-skip menus available at any
    time by clicking Alt+2, or as the first element of the site while navigating
    with the keyboard. The background process also handles triggered popups by
    moving the keyboard focus towards them as soon as they appear, not allowing
    the focus to drift outside.
    
    Users can also use shortcuts such as “M” (menus), “H” (headings), “F”
    (forms), “B” (buttons), and “G” (graphics) to jump to specific elements.

Disability profiles supported on our website
 * Epilepsy Safe Profile: this profile enables people with epilepsy to safely
   use the website by eliminating the risk of seizures resulting from flashing
   or blinking animations and risky color combinations.
 * Vision Impaired Profile: this profile adjusts the website so that it is
   accessible to the majority of visual impairments such as Degrading Eyesight,
   Tunnel Vision, Cataract, Glaucoma, and others.
 * Cognitive Disability Profile: this profile provides various assistive
   features to help users with cognitive disabilities such as Autism, Dyslexia,
   CVA, and others, to focus on the essential elements more easily.
 * ADHD Friendly Profile: this profile significantly reduces distractions and
   noise to help people with ADHD, and Neurodevelopmental disorders browse,
   read, and focus on the essential elements more easily.
 * Blind Users Profile (Screen-readers): this profile adjusts the website to be
   compatible with screen-readers such as JAWS, NVDA, VoiceOver, and TalkBack. A
   screen-reader is installed on the blind user’s computer, and this site is
   compatible with it.
 * Keyboard Navigation Profile (Motor-Impaired): this profile enables
   motor-impaired persons to operate the website using the keyboard Tab,
   Shift+Tab, and the Enter keys. Users can also use shortcuts such as “M”
   (menus), “H” (headings), “F” (forms), “B” (buttons), and “G” (graphics) to
   jump to specific elements.

Additional UI, design, and readability adjustments
 1. Font adjustments – users can increase and decrease its size, change its
    family (type), adjust the spacing, alignment, line height, and more.
 2. Color adjustments – users can select various color contrast profiles such as
    light, dark, inverted, and monochrome. Additionally, users can swap color
    schemes of titles, texts, and backgrounds with over seven different coloring
    options.
 3. Animations – epileptic users can stop all running animations with the click
    of a button. Animations controlled by the interface include videos, GIFs,
    and CSS flashing transitions.
 4. Content highlighting – users can choose to emphasize essential elements such
    as links and titles. They can also choose to highlight focused or hovered
    elements only.
 5. Audio muting – users with hearing devices may experience headaches or other
    issues due to automatic audio playing. This option lets users mute the
    entire website instantly.
 6. Cognitive disorders – we utilize a search engine linked to Wikipedia and
    Wiktionary, allowing people with cognitive disorders to decipher meanings of
    phrases, initials, slang, and others.
 7. Additional functions – we allow users to change cursor color and size, use a
    printing mode, enable a virtual keyboard, and many other functions.

Assistive technology and browser compatibility

We aim to support as many browsers and assistive technologies as possible, so
our users can choose the best fitting tools for them, with as few limitations as
possible. Therefore, we have worked very hard to be able to support all major
systems that comprise over 95% of the user market share, including Google
Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Opera and Microsoft Edge, JAWS, and NVDA
(screen readers), both for Windows and MAC users.

Notes, comments, and feedback

Despite our very best efforts to allow anybody to adjust the website to their
needs, there may still be pages or sections that are not fully accessible, are
in the process of becoming accessible, or are lacking an adequate technological
solution to make them accessible. Still, we are continually improving our
accessibility, adding, updating, improving its options and features, and
developing and adopting new technologies. All this is meant to reach the optimal
level of accessibility following technological advancements. If you wish to
contact the website’s owner, please use the website's form

Hide Accessibility Interface? Please note: If you choose to hide the
accessibility interface, you won't be able to see it anymore, unless you clear
your browsing history and data. Are you sure that you wish to hide the
interface?
Accept Cancel

Continue



Processing the data, please give it a few seconds...
Press Alt+1 for screen-reader mode