Member Article

UK Anonymisation Network launched at University of Manchester

The University of Manchester has launched a new expert network that will help businesses to safely manage and share sensitive information.

The UK Anonymisation Network (UKAN) was supported by the University and is now led by Dr Mark Elliot, who is based at The University of Manchester’s School of Social Sciences.

Funding was provided by the UK Information Commissioner, while the Open Data Institute also offered support alongside the Office for National Statistics and the University of Southampton.

UKAN will provide advice to organisations and companies on how to reduce the risks around holding personal details of individuals and the inadvertent sharing of data.

The network aims to lay a foundation of best practice for anonymisation and give advice to anyone who handles sensitive data, especially those in health, education and policing.

Dr Elliot commented: “Because technology is rapidly changing, and because so many more organisations collect data nowadays, information privacy is one of the big issues facing society.

“There are many positive things associated with these changes but things can go wrong, so we must ensure they happen in the right way and effective anonymisation is a vital part of that.”

UKAN will help to deliver the Government’s Transparency Initiative, which hopes to dispel any culture of data secrecy within Government departments, public bodies, businesses and other organisations.

Prof Sir Nigel Shadbolt, of the University of Southampton and Chairman and co-founder of the Open Data Institute, said: “If we are to harness the power of open data to support innovative services, increase accountability and empower citizens, we will need to ensure trust is retained.

“If data is available online, then the public must be confident that citizens’ personal details will remain concealed.”

Christopher Graham, UK Information Commissioner, added: “If correctly deployed, anonymised data can have important benefits - aiding privacy by design, increasing the transparency of government and supporting the UK’s widely regarded research community.

“It is vital that existing and emerging data protection risks are properly assessed by data controllers who wish to anonymise data.

“The network will also provide important best practice advice on how data can be successfully anonymised in compliance with the UK Data Protection Act.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Miranda Dobson .