Harvard Professor Re-Identifies Anonymous Volunteers In DNA Study(forbes.com)

Harvard Professor Re-Identifies Anonymous Volunteers In DNA Study

http://www.forbes.com/sites/adamtanner/2013/04/25/harvard-professor-re-identifies-anonymous-volunteers-in-dna-study/

1 comments

csense13 anni fa

IMHO the DNA study is sort of a red herring. The real story here is that ZIP code, birthdate and gender have enough bits of entropy between them that they can uniquely identify people 40% of the time.

I personally usually fill out my birthdate as January 1 of the nearest year that is evenly divisible by 10 [1].

[1] Mainly when registering a new account with some random website that makes you type in your date of birth to register an account. If it's connected to my finances, employment, or medicine, of course I give them the real deal. Of course, thanks to my wonderful government, even this may be a felony [2].

[2] https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/04/are-you-teenager-who-r...