Industry Insights

In our blog we provide you with industry insights on privacy, anonymization, analytics and of course information about our solution Aircloak Insights.

Category: GDPR


April 20, 2020 by Paul Francis

Tracking Covid-19 privately: Let’s at least use the tools we have

National Data Protection Authorities need to pave the way for private Covid-19 data sharing between companies and governments. This article proposes a rapid GDPR anonymization certification so that companies can quickly use existing commercial anonymization technologies for sharing Covid-19 data without legal risk. Data is a key tool in managing the Covid-19 pandemic. Decision makers need data to understand the … read more


November 26, 2019 by Nicolas Sartor

7 Questions on Privacy and Data Anonymization [Survey Results]

Interestingly enough, despite being a heavily discussed topic, surveys on privacy and data anonymization are still pretty rare. In September of this year, we were invited to participate at an event from Digitalstrategie.NRW (an initiative on digitization, coined by the Ministry of Economic Affairs from North Rhine-Westphalia) with a talk on data anonymization. What made this event unique is that … read more


November 21, 2019 by Nicolas Sartor

A Visual Comparison for Privacy Approaches in Data Analytics

In the field of Privacy Enhancing Technologies (or PrivTech), one truth is becoming increasingly apparent: there is no silver bullet in privacy approaches. Each data use case has to be considered separately. Typical requirements we discuss with customers are What analytical quality is needed? Is time to market for each use case a factor? What privacy protection is needed or … read more


September 23, 2019 by Nicolas Sartor

A Brief History of Data Anonymization

“’Anonymized’ Data Can Be Anything But’” – Forbes, July 24, 2019 When the world media reported the results of a recent scientific paper on the ineffectiveness of data anonymization, it was anything but news. Already in 1981 the US computer scientist, Dorothy E. Denning, stated in one of her scientific papers on database security that when working with data it … read more


July 29, 2019 by Nicolas Sartor

9 Data Anonymization Use Cases You Need To Know Of

While theoretical examples and academic approaches to data anonymization are plentiful, it is hard to find information on actual current use cases. To fill this gap, we are constantly collecting the best examples and present these here. At the end of this article we also name tools and vendors that claim to solve some of the respective use cases. Note … read more


July 26, 2019 by Felix Bauer

On The Not So Surprising Failure of Anonymization ;)™️

Ladies and gentlemen, let’s pack our things. Unsubscribe. Turns out anonymization is impossible. “Your Data Were ‘Anonymized’? These Scientists Can Still Identify You”, New York Times titles. TechCrunch writes, dramatically: “Researchers spotlight the lie of “anonymous” data” and Mashable apologizes on the spot: “Sorry, your ‘anonymized’ data probably isn’t anonymous”. The Guardian, Forbes, CNBC, and many others ring the same … read more


May 10, 2019 by Nicolas Sartor

Explaining Differential Privacy in 3 Levels of Difficulty

When dealing with data anonymization, one inevitably encounters differential privacy. Many privacy researchers regard it as the “gold standard” of anonymization. Well-known tech companies such as Apple or Google are using it for certain data analyses and market it to raise public awareness underlining their focus on data protection. But what exactly stands behind this approach, and why does it … read more