What techniques are used to protect privacy by removing or modifying personally identifiable information from data sets?

Anonymization is a technique used to protect privacy by ensuring that personally identifiable information (PII) is no longer associated with a specific individual in a data set. This process involves either completely removing identifiable information or altering it in such a way that the data cannot be traced back to any individual without the use of additional information. The goal of anonymization is to safeguard the privacy of individuals while still allowing the data to be used for analysis, research, or other purposes.

In contrast, while encryption secures data by converting it into a format that can only be read with a decryption key, it does not inherently remove or modify identifiable information—it simply protects it from unauthorized access. Data obfuscation refers to the practice of making data confusing or difficult to interpret and can involve modifying data, but this might not result in complete anonymity and can sometimes still leave traces of the original data. Access control involves managing who can view or use the data but does not alter the data or remove identifiable information. Thus, anonymization is specifically focused on modifying or removing PII to enhance privacy.