Netflix's Impending (But Still Avoidable) Multi-Million Dollar Privacy Blunder

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Rich Kulawiec <rsk () gsp org>
Date: September 22, 2009 8:46:00 AM EDT
To: Paul Ferguson <fergdawgster () gmail com>, Richard Forno <rforno () infowarrior org 
>, Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
Subject: Netflix's Impending (But Still Avoidable) Multi-Million  
Dollar Privacy Blunder


(via BoingBoing)

        
	Netflix's Impending (But Still Avoidable) Multi-Million Dollar  
Privacy Blunder
        
http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/blog/paul/netflixs-impending-still-avoidable-multi-million-dollar-privacy-blunder

Excerpt:

        Netflix should cancel this new, irresponsible contest, which
        it has dubbed Netflix Prize 2. Researchers have known for more
        than a decade that gender plus ZIP code plus birthdate uniquely
        identifies a significant percentage of Americans (87% according
        to Latanya Sweeney's famous study.) True, Netflix plans to
        release age not birthdate, but simple arithmetic shows that
        for many people in the country, gender plus ZIP code plus age
        will narrow their private movie preferences down to at most a
        few hundred people. Netflix needs to understand the concept of
        "information entropy": even if it is not revealing information
        tied to a single person, it is revealing information tied to so
        few that we should consider this a privacy breach.

        I have no doubt that researchers will be able to use the
        techniques of Narayanan and Shmatikov, together with databases
        revealing sex, zip code, and age, to tie many people directly
        to these supposedly anonymized new records.

        Because of this, if it releases the data, Netflix might be
        breaking the law.

---Rsk




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