[MyData & Open Data] Fwd: NY Taxi data breach.

Sam Smith s at msmith.net
Tue Jun 24 10:00:58 UTC 2014


On 24 Jun 02014, at 10:56, Walter van Holst <walter.van.holst at xs4all.nl> wrote:
> On 2014-06-24 11:21, Javier Ruiz Diaz wrote:
>>> How on earth the data holder thought that that data was anonymised
>>> in the wild is beyond me.
> 
> Mark is probably not on this list, but the more depressing thought is that this data holder went to much greater lengths in attempting to anonymise the data than the average data holder would. And still failed miserably.

Unfortunately, in disclosure work especially, effort does not equate with effectiveness.

It is easy to spend a great deal of time and effort on something utterly pointless, and claim success.

Until someone points out that what you're doing may not entirely be wise.


Given the granularity of the data, NYers who get taxis from their mistress home ("from the office") to their wives may have some explaining to do; belief is different to proof.



Regards
Sam


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