k-Anonymity

Synonyms

p-Sensitive; k-Anonymity

Definition

A protected dataset is said to satisfy k-anonymity for k > 1 if, for each combination of key attribute values (e.g., address, age, gender, etc.), at least k records exist in the dataset sharing that combination [2, 3].

Key Points

If, for a given k, k-anonymity is assumed to be sufficient protection, one can concentrate on minimizing information loss with the only constraint that k-anonymity should be satisfied. This is a clean way of solving the tension between data protection and data utility. Since k-anonymity is usually achieved via generalization (equivalent to global recoding, as said above) and local suppression, minimizing information loss usually translates to reducing the number and/or the magnitude of suppressions.

k-Anonymity bears some resemblance to the underlying principle of microaggregation and is a useful concept because quasi-identifiers are usually categorical or can be categorized, i.e., they take values in a finite (and...