Data anonymization is interesting and might be possible in some applications, but what do you do when you're working with e.g. DNA? Sometimes the data you want to work with is inherently un-anonymizable, and research has shown that data is sometimes easily de-anonymizable.
For example, a worldwide database of DNA correlated with patient's entire health records would be extremely valuable for science, but obviously raises some concerns. Is the answer strong anti-discrimination laws or strong privacy laws? Maybe we should never create such a database? AK On Tue, Sep 28, 2010 at 11:27 AM, Parker <[email protected]> wrote: > Agreed re: most interesting issues in Free Culture! > > I keep saying that decentralized and federated is all cool and stuff (see > also Diaspora*) until you want to have useful things like recommendation > engines which require large centralized datasets. > > And this why I'm stupid for not focusing my computer science studies on > data anonymization. Because I think that's going to be important to > relieving this tension. > > > On Tue, Sep 28, 2010 at 2:19 PM, Alex Kozak <[email protected]>wrote: > >> I know little about the letter of FERPA, but I do know it's been flagged >> as an issue by the Dept. of Education and others as a barrier to data >> sharing and research to improve education. The best link I have is page 36 >> of this PDF: http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/os/technology/netp.pdf >> >> It's very similar to how hard it is to share medical research data in the >> life sciences because of patient data protections in HIPPA. >> >> To me these are the most interesting issues in free culture because there >> is a clear tension between protecting privacy and promoting sharing for >> general human welfare and advancement. They might not be mutually exclusive, >> but it definitely increases barriers to try and achieve both. >> >> AK >> >> On Tue, Sep 28, 2010 at 10:29 AM, Parker <[email protected]> wrote: >> >>> In my probability class, the prof had us sign FERPA waivers so that she >>> could back the homework in class! >>> >>> I thought this was interesting. And maybe excessive. Do any FERPA nerds >>> know if there are exemptions for this kind of thing? Are other people >>> finding their profs t be equally scared of violating FERPA? (fwiw, at least >>> one professor here is very hesitant about implementing OpenCourseWare at >>> Dartmouth because of FERPA. but that's another discussion entirely!) >>> >>> -- >>> http://www.madebyparker.com >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Discuss mailing list >>> [email protected] >>> http://freeculture.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss >>> FAQ: http://wiki.freeculture.org/Fc-discuss >>> >>> >> >> >> -- >> Alex Kozak >> Program Assistant >> Creative Commons >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Discuss mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://freeculture.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss >> FAQ: http://wiki.freeculture.org/Fc-discuss >> >> > > > -- > http://www.madebyparker.com > > _______________________________________________ > Discuss mailing list > [email protected] > http://freeculture.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss > FAQ: http://wiki.freeculture.org/Fc-discuss > > -- Alex Kozak Program Assistant Creative Commons
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