- From NFGworld! http://nfgworld.com/mb/thread/669-Fascinating-analysis-of-census-data Fri, 10 Sep 2010 02:50:15 GMT FeedCreator 1.8.0-dev (info@mypapit.net) Fascinating analysis of census data (Uniquely ID people based on their home and work post codes!) http://nfgworld.com/mb/thread/669-Fascinating-analysis-of-census-data Bruce Schneier's blog: Researchers have worked out that knowing only the block where your home and office are, you can be uniquely identified (PDF link). 

That's really interesting, but not surprising: how many people work and live on the same blocks?  What's fascinating to me is the proof of it all.  The research suggests that the block-level data is all that's needed to uniquely identify you, and that your home and work postal (ZIP) code is enough to identify 5% of the population.  That's a seriously coarse sampling but still quite useful.

There's quite a bit of analysis on 33 Bits of Entropy, covering the risk to anonymity when you consider the above research in combination with modern location-based technologies.

Very much an interesting read. ]]> no_email@example.com (NFGworld.com - NFG) Sun, 24 May 2009 23:14:03 GMT http://nfgworld.com/mb/669#1775