What’s the news: A report by ET says that the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) is seeking fresh inter-ministerial consultations on its data anonymisation guidelines after withdrawing the same on September 6th. These guidelines were first issued on August 30th. A copy of the earlier draft is available here. What is data anonymisation? Data anonymisation is a technique to remove or minimise the identifiability of individuals from a data set, according to the guidelines released earlier. 'Minimising' identifiable traits would mean that some identifiable traits can be present even in an anonymised data sets. However, there is a much stronger definition in ISO standards, which states that data anonymisation is the "process by which personally identifiable information (pii) is irreversibly altered in such a way that a pii principal can no longer be identified directly or indirectly, either by the pii controller alone or in collaboration with any other party.” Why it matters: The draft National Data Governance Policy (NDGP) released earlier this year aims to use anonymised data to improve governance, research and innovation, and delivery of services such as healthcare and education. In line with the objectives of the draft NDGP, it is essential to ensure that data is anonymised in a secure way that protects individual identity and limits the purpose for which such data can be used. What to expect? Sources informed ET that MeitY will be looking for inputs on global standards of data anonymisation. Moreover, the government will also look at how…
