Today, companies are increasingly faced with data breaches. Faced with these growing risks, the anonymisation of personal data is becoming an essential solution for protecting the confidentiality of sensitive information and complying with the strict requirements of the RGPD.
This content on data anonymisation is part of our dossier on the Data Catalog.
69% of businesses in France suffered a data breach in 2023. Data breaches can have disastrous legal, financial and reputational consequences for businesses. By anonymising data, businesses can protect the privacy of their customers and employees, reduce the risk of data breaches and avoid any fines and penalties imposed by the CNIL for non-compliance with the RGPD (General Data Protection Regulation).
Personal data is any information that directly or indirectly identifies a natural person, such as a name, address, telephone number or IP address. It plays a central role in many sectors, from marketing and healthcare to digital services.
Managing and protecting this data has become essential, not least because of the growing risks associated with cyber attacks, fraud and privacy breaches. Regulations such as the RGPD reinforce the obligations of organisations in terms of transparency, security and respect for the rights of individuals with regard to their personal data.
The Data Protection Act aims to protect the rights of individuals with regard to the use of information technology. It governs the collection, processing and storage of personal data, guaranteeing in particular the right to confidentiality, access, rectification and deletion of data. This law has been adapted and strengthened over time, in particular with the entry into force of the RGPD, to harmonise European practices and provide a better response to the challenges of an ever-changing digital world.
"The protection of personal data is not just a legal obligation, it is an ethical commitment to preserve the trust and freedom of every individual."
Every day, organisations generate and store a wide variety of data within their information systems. This diversity raises the question of the best policies for ensuring that data is secure and protected. For example, as part of project validation, production data may be copied to environments dedicated to training or testing. This can expose the organisation’s critical, confidential or sensitive data to risk, particularly if it is hosted on insufficiently secure platforms.
"Anonymising data turns a risk into an opportunity, enabling innovation in complete security while respecting the confidentiality of individuals."
Reduce the risk of data leakage
Ensuring data consistency and usability
Reducing the impact of RGPD-related constraints on the organisation's strategy
Using data for analytical purposes
Optimising operational efficiency by reducing costs and simplifying processes
Data anonymisation is a process aimed at irreversibly transforming personal information so that it is no longer possible to directly or indirectly identify the individuals concerned. This process is essential to guarantee the confidentiality and protection of sensitive data, particularly in a context where regulations, such as the RGPD in Europe, impose strict obligations on their processing. Mastering anonymisation is crucial to limiting the risk of data breaches, preventing potential abuses, and promoting responsible use of data, particularly in testing, training or research environments. Properly managed anonymisation enables organisations to reconcile innovation and compliance while protecting the rights of individuals.
"Data anonymisation is a subtle balance between protecting privacy and enhancing the value of information."
Assessing a company’s needs and risks in terms of data anonymisation is a fundamental step in putting in place an effective and appropriate protection strategy. Every organisation handles different types of data, with varying levels of sensitivity, which requires in-depth analysis to identify critical data and its role in business processes. At the same time, it is crucial to anticipate the risks associated with their exposure or insufficient anonymisation, such as breaches of confidentiality, regulatory sanctions or reputational damage. This assessment not only enables appropriate anonymisation techniques to be chosen, but also guarantees a balance between data protection and its usefulness for the company’s activities, while meeting legal requirements and stakeholder expectations.
MyDataCatalogue is the Phoenix platform module dedicated to mapping and cataloguing your data assets, enabling them to be anonymised. MyDataCatalogue enables you to manage your data effectively by making it easier to discover, understand and use, while guaranteeing compliance and security. With MyDataCatalogue, you can identify, understand and visualise your data within a data catalogue, efficiently and collaboratively!
The functions of MyDataCatalogue can be combined with the other modules of the Phoenix platform to provide a solution for the entire data cycle, from identification to urbanisation, governance and movement through processes.
"Mapping and cataloguing data means laying solid foundations for effective anonymisation and responsible information management."
With its Data Anonymising feature, MyDataCatalogue lets you define personal data access policies to ensure that only authorised people can view or modify sensitive information.
With regular, automated audits, you can ensure compliance with data protection regulations by easily identifying data that needs to be anonymised.
Modifications and accesses to anonymised data are traced, facilitating internal and external audits and ensuring complete transparency of operations carried out.
The data mapping function provides an overview of the data and enables it to be prioritised, so that the personal data that needs to be anonymised can be highlighted.
You create a common knowledge base, enriched and accessible to all, to ensure uniformity of personal data throughout the organisation. You base your strategic decisions on controlled information.
Within our Phoenix platform, Data Discovery is natively integrated with our MyDataCatalogue tool to anonymise all your personal data.
This module ensures knowledge of the data and the ability of the business units to consult or modify it. As Data Catalog users and the main recipients of the data, business departments are freed from technical constraints so that they can concentrate on their own activities.
Data anonymisation is the process by which identifying information is removed or modified so that a person can no longer be identified, directly or indirectly, from the data.
Data anonymisation is essential to protect the privacy of individuals, comply with data protection regulations (such as the RGPD in Europe), and reduce the risks associated with the disclosure of sensitive data.
Removal of direct identifiers: Removal of names, social security numbers, addresses, etc.
Generalisation: Grouping data into broad categories (for example, replacing specific dates of birth with age ranges).
Data disruption: Adding noise or modifying data to blur the information without losing its statistical value.
Aggregation: Summarising individual data into grouped data (for example, averages or totals).
To ensure effective anonymisation:
