From: daw@cs.berkeley.edu (David Wagner)
Date: Sat, 1 Jun 1996 12:50:41 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Statistical analysis of anonymous databases
In-Reply-To: <v01540b02add1fc6e4658@[193.239.225.200]>
Message-ID: <4onta5$4fb@joseph.cs.berkeley.edu>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


In article <v01540b02add1fc6e4658@[193.239.225.200]>,
Clay Olbon II <Clay.Olbon@dynetics.com> wrote:
> In medical research (this particular application - there are others I am
> sure) it is desirable to have a large database of individual medical
> histories available to search for correlations, risk factors, etc.  The
> problem, of course, is that many individuals want their medical histories
> kept private.  It is therefore necessary to maintain a database that is not
> traceable back to individuals.  An additional requirement is that people
> must be able to add additional information to their records as it becomes
> available.

How about a simple non-technical solution?  Each patient picks a
random pseudonym; the database is keyed off that pseudonym, and the
person's True Name(tm) never appears in the database.  Patients
should remember their pseudonym (or write it down); then they can
add information to the database.

Ahh, anonymity.

(Hey, I posted about something exportable-- that should fill my
quota for the year. :-)