[open-science] Privacy and open research data

[jtw at del-fi.org]

I wrote about this over a year ago in response to PMR's comment about 
risks of open data and re-identification, but it didn't get any notice here.

http://del-fi.org/post/15573839201/open-data-is-not-your-new-bicycle

Recent issues in genomics, open data, and identifiability here:

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/339/6117/321.abstract (paywall, sorry)
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/339/6117/275 (paywalled, sorry, but 
companion policy piece to the above)

And of course three classic cases where open data breaks privacy:

https://freedom-to-tinker.com/blog/paul/netflixs-impending-still-avoidable-multi-million-dollar-privacy-blunder/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AOL_search_data_leak
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2009/09/your-secrets-live-online-in-databases-of-ruin/

Open data is going to make us more identifiable because data makes us 
more identifiable, and the more there is of it, the more identifiable we 
become. We should acknowledge that head-on and design for it.

The technologies for de-identification and anonymization are nowhere 
near as strong as the technologies that break them - banking on 
technology and licenses to enforce privacy is like banking on digital 
rights management and click-throughs to enforce copyright...

jtw

On 2/19/13 4:00 AM, open-science-request at lists.okfn.org wrote:
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>     1. Wikimedia France research award : the choice is	yours ! Fwd:
>        [Wiki-research-l] (Everton Zanella Alvarenga)
>     2. Re: Privacy and open research data (Song, Stephen)
>     3. Re: Privacy and open research data (Peter Murray-Rust)
>     4. Re: Privacy and open research data (Song, Stephen)
>     5. Re: BioMed Central and LabArchives (Joshua Jang)
>     6. Re: BioMed Central and LabArchives (Joshua Jang)
>     7. Re: BioMed Central and LabArchives (Joshua Jang)
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>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Mon, 18 Feb 2013 09:54:17 -0300
> From: Everton Zanella Alvarenga <everton.alvarenga at okfn.org>
> Subject: [open-science] Wikimedia France research award : the choice
> 	is	yours ! Fwd: [Wiki-research-l]
> To: open-science at lists.okfn.org
> Message-ID:
> 	<CAGYd_ohaVGZUesbk1TN1sm3dAN8dTs65AwnmuePahPGvmEbRZA at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
>
> That is an interesting initiative. Maybe we could do something similar.
> Worth seeing the proposals to this research award.
>
> Tom
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Carol Ann <carolann.ohare at wikimedia.fr>
> Date: 2013/2/18
> Subject: [Wiki-research-l] Wikimedia France research award : the choice is
> yours !
> To: wiki-research-l at lists.wikimedia.org
>
>
> Hi all,
>
> Wikim?dia France, a non-profit organization supporting Wikimedia projects
> in France, launched a few months ago an international research award aiming
> to reward the most influential research work on Wikimedia projects and free
> knowledge. After the initial submission of research papers by the wikimedia
> community, our jury
> members<http://researchaward.wikimedia.fr/en/page-d-exemple/>have
> selected among a thirty
> proposals<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Wikimedia_France_Research_Award/papers_submission>,
> five finalists.
>
> It's now up to you to choose the most influential. For that, please visit
> this page :
> http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Wikimedia_France_Research_Award/nominated_papersand
> vote. Deadline for vote is early March. The announcement of the winner
> is scheduled to end of March.
>
> If you have any questions, please use the project talk page, thanks !
>