Data and privacy

Anonymisation

Processing data so people can no longer be identified, by any means reasonably likely to be used. Truly anonymous data falls outside UK GDPR, but it is harder to achieve than it looks: removing names is rarely enough.


Related terms

Data classification

Labelling information by sensitivity, such as public, internal, confidential and restricted, so people know what can g…

Data labelling

Adding the correct answers or categories to raw data so it can be used for supervised learning or evaluation, often do…

Data leakage

Sensitive information ending up somewhere it should not, such as confidential documents pasted into a consumer AI tool…

Data minimisation

The principle of using only the personal data you actually need for the purpose. In practice: strip names and irreleva…

Data processing agreement

The contract between an organisation and a supplier that processes personal data on its behalf, setting out what the s…

Data provenance

A record of where data came from, how it was collected and what has been done to it. It underpins decisions about lawf…

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