Re-identification risk in de-identified databases containing personal information

A system for performing risk assessment of a data set, the system comprising:

• a processor;
• a memory containing instructions for execution by the processor, the instructions comprising:
• retrieving the de-identified dataset comprising a plurality of records from a storage device;
• receiving a selection of variables from a user, the selection made from a plurality of variables present in the dataset, wherein the variables are potential identifiers of personal information;
• receiving a selection of a risk threshold acceptable for the dataset from a user;
• receiving a selection of a sampling fraction wherein the sampling fraction define a relative size of their dataset to an entire population;
• determining a number of records from the plurality of records for each equivalence class in the identification dataset for each of the selected variables;
• calculating a re-identification risk using the selected sampling fraction;
• and
• determining if the re-identification risk meets the selected risk threshold.

A computer readable memory containing instructions for execution on a processor, the instructions comprising:

• retrieving the de-identified dataset comprising a plurality of records from a storage device;
• receiving a selection of variables from a user, the selection made from a plurality of variables present in the dataset, wherein the variables are potential identifiers of personal information;
• receiving a selection of a risk threshold acceptable for the dataset from a user;
• receiving a selection of a sampling fraction wherein the sampling fraction define a relative size of their dataset to an entire population;
• determining a number of records from the plurality of records for each equivalence class in the identification dataset for each of the selected variables;
• calculating a re-identification risk using the selected sampling fraction;
• and
• determining if the re-identification risk meets the selected risk threshold.