Corpora: Anonymisation

Frances Rock (ROCKFE.ENG.ARTS.Bham@hhs.bham.ac.uk)
Mon, 8 Mar 1999 13:48:28 +0000

Dear all

I am currently preparing a short paper on anonymisation of data and
have three sets of questions about this. I would appreciate any
thoughts you may have on any of the issues raised below:

1) Your practical experiences: Have you ever anonymised data (eg for
inclusion within a corpus) by removing personal names, place names,
business names etc.? If so why did you do that and what particular
problems did you encounter? If not, why not? Has you decision not
to anonymise ever had any repercussions?

2) Automation: Do you know of any software which can be used for
automated anonymisation?

3) General/Theoretical questions: What is anonymisation? In
pursuit of this: When, if ever, is anonymisation necessary? What
exactly should be anonymised? What can be used to replace items which
'need' to be anonymised? What kinds of information can reasonably be
preserved without an infringement of individuals' rights? What kinds
of information need to be preserved to aid effective analysis?

Several people have commented that this is a bit of a 'non-issue', I
am also interested in hearing more about that point of view.

I would be very grateful for any comments you may have on the
specific questions I have raised above or on more general issues
which are connected to the practice of anonymisation.

I will of course post a summary of replies to the list if there is
sufficient interest.

Many thanks

Frances

__________________________________________________
Frances Rock
Postgraduate Student
Department of English
The University of Birmingham
Edgbaston Birmingham B15 2TT

0121 257 3519
f.e.rock@bham.ac.uk
__________________________________________________