Anonimyzation, pseudonymization… What is it and what is the difference?

We live in a highly digitized society. There are many companies that have a large amount of information on different platforms such as SAP, OpenText, etc., tools that allow automation, and work with a large amount of data.
These tools, of course, provide information that allows better decisión-making and provides multiple benefits, however, it is essential to respect people’s rights and their privacy. Therefore their personal data should be protected. To do this, we must eliminate any possibility of identifying individuals through anonymization or pseudonymization.  

What is data anonymization?

La anonimización de datos coThe anonymization of data consists of a process through which the risks of re-identification of anonymized data are eliminated, maintaining their veracity, that is, this process should not interfere with the results of the análisis o fan anonymized data set.

What is data pseudonymization?

Pseudonymisation consists of treating personal data in such a way that it cannot be attributed to a person without using additional information. This additional information must be separated and subject to techniques that guarantee that personal data cannot be attributed to a specific person.

Difference between data anonymization and pseudonymization

Anonymization is a procedure where identifying data is completely disassociated from personal data, it is irreversible.

Pseudonymisation disassociates the identifying data, but there is additional data that serves to re-identify people, therefore, it is a reversible procedure.

Conclusion

Whichever method is chosen, people’s rights must be respected and therefore their data must be equally protected. At Brait we understand the importance of complying with GDPR, which is why we have worked on a connector that protects personal data of any type of content in our OpenText content platform through anonimyzation or pseudonymization.

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