Without a Data Privacy Law, India Must Consider Hazards of 'Deanonymisation' of Non-Personal Data

 

Deanonymisation is performed by combining anonymised datasets to identify information about a particular user in different contexts, which can reveal layered and comprehensive personal information about an individual




Large datasets are useful for research, governance, or commerce – they often contain a mix of personally identifiable data alongside descriptive data related to that individual. This data, which supposedly does not identify a person, can be useful to access and analyse. However, as long as it sits alongside personal data (which is usually protected by data protection laws), processing it poses privacy risks to individuals.

So, to make use of this information, organisations and governments ‘scrub’ datasets of personal data. This supposedly leaves them full of ‘non-personal data’ that is ‘anonymised’ because it doesn’t actually link back to an individual anymore or harm their privacy. The datasets are then released for public use.

The guidelines were another step for non-personal data governance in India

Like many countries, the Indian government is pushing for the utilisation of anonymised non-personal data to improve governance, research and competition between businesses. State governments are keen on the idea of utilising anonymised non-personal data too – in April, the Tamil Nadu government released ‘masked’ data on the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission selection process under its open data policy.

for more info: https://thewire.in/rights/deanonymisation-in-non-personal-data   

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