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: General


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


April 8, 2019 by Nicolas Sartor

Privacy Enhancing Technologies and Anonymization: 11 Experts Share Their Insights

We asked 11 different experts that are journalists, researchers, data protection officers, consultants and data scientists about their thoughts on how Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs) and data anonymization can help in a data-driven future. See what they had to say below. Wolfie Christl Privacy Researcher “Companies very often use the word anonymization when really nothing is anonymized at all. […] … read more

Aircloak Illustration Stop

February 25, 2019 by Felix Bauer

The 7 Myths of Data Anonymization

In our daily work as a company for a data anonymization solution we are often asked to clarify data anonymization with customers and in personal conversations. Alarmingly often we hear questions like “What is the difference between anonymization and encryption again?”. But some questions demonstrate serious misunderstandings, which can have equally serious consequences. To shed some light on this mystery, … read more

CPDP Logo 2019

February 13, 2019 by Nicolas Sartor

Certification for GDPR-compliant Anonymity: Real Anonymization or just another Risk Assessment?

There are plenty of different perspectives on data anonymity: Legal, economical, technological and of course ethical ones. At the CPDP 2019 conference, Aircloak hosted a panel that brought all these different views together at one table. The panel has investigated one of the most pressing questions currently facing us in the field of data anonymization: What are the problems and … read more

Aerial View of a City

January 31, 2019 by Nicolas Sartor

Hackathon Urban Data: A Perfect Data Anonymization Use Case

No traffic jams, perfectly coordinated bus and tram timetables, no environmental pollution, less stress and a significantly improved quality of life. This is how we imagine the city of the future! In Smart Cities, specific challenges, especially in the areas of transport planning, energy efficiency and waste management, are solved with the help of data analysis. Mobility data of residents … read more

GDA Score Logo

January 28, 2019 by Nicolas Sartor

The General Data Anonymity Score – How to Make Anonymization Methods Comparable

In theory, many anonymization methods may work well. In practice, anonymized results are usually either usable or strongly anonymized, but not both. Data scientists have been struggling for years with the tradeoff between data quality and privacy. To make things worse, there are currently no common certifications or testing methods for anonymization solutions that define whether the anonymization carried out … read more


August 22, 2018 by Felix Bauer

Break my Life’s Work and I’ll Pay You Handsomely

Because expert validation of anonymization approaches is really difficult, Aircloak started a bug-bounty program for its product – the Aircloak Attack Challenge. In the wake of this, a new method of measuring privacy was established and can be used for various functions in the future. Nobody has a clue about Anonymization It’s summer 2017 in Helsinki; some of the brightest … read more