Evaluation of Anonymization Tools for Health Data
Olga Vovk, Gunnar Piho, Peeter Ross · Communications in computer and information science · 2021
It is hard to overestimate the value of data in modern healthcare practice. On the one hand, we have an opportunity to use the data for health care quality improvement, and, on the other hand, we have privacy challenges. Considering the fact that we are dealing with sensitive personal data, privacy rights must be protected. Data anonymization is a technique to use healthcare data while preserving privacy.Anonymization is a complex process that requires technical skills, an understanding of privacy requirements, and understanding health data’s nature. Numerous anonymization tools are available to automate the anonymization process. Selecting among existing anonymization tools is challenging due to the necessity of collecting, comparing and analysing information on all tools separately.This research aims to provide a systematic assessment of structured health data anonymization open-access tools and make the selection process easier. This paper describes the tools’ advantages and disadvantages and reports whether these tools are sufficient to anonymize health data. In our understanding, based on the presented research, the tool selection process can speed up to 5 times because instead of installing and testing anonymization tools by themselves and collecting all relevant information, one can focus on the most suitable tools based on criteria given in this paper.This work aims to help readers understand the advantages and disadvantages of free anonymization tools and improve, simplify, and speed up the selection process.