• mannycalavera@feddit.uk
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    11 months ago

    Create anonymous UUID, store interactions against this in a separate table, ensure PII is removed prior to storing. So instead of Max Reboo has purchased a subscription to jugs and hooters it’s user 12345678901234576 has purchased jugs and hooters. How can a future treadmill de-anonymise this? For sure if the storage is done badly then you can track back to a particular user.

    Also, once again, can you link to the netflix issue you quoted above please. Thanks.

    • Primarily0617@kbin.social
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      11 months ago

      Create anonymous UUID, store interactions against this in a separate table, ensure PII is removed prior to storing

      which is more or less exactly what netflix did -> the whole thing’s not that hard to find on google

      but you need something to distinguish users at least a bit or the data’s equivalent to sales figures

      you combine that “not-quite-pii” with other independent data sources that have similar “not-quite-pii” and build a complete picture

      the treadmill effect comes from active research in this exact area trying to de-anonymise data sets finding new techniques to get around old ones