On Mon, Jun 15, 2009 at 15:42, Kurt J<[email protected]> wrote:
>> Not sure what the relevance of crypto is.
>
> i suppose mixed meanings here.  i thought your concern was taking
> anonymous data and tracing it back to users by reversing a hash or
> something like this.

I wasn't thinking of that particular scenario, but I would be
surprised if someone has naively claimed eg that hashed usernames are
anonymous, which would be silly given dictionary attacks.

>> http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/02/last-fm-and-the-diabolical-power-of-data-mining
>
> right.
>
> so are you envisioning a scenario where the RIAA uses anonymous data -
> which only contains listening habits and a hash code - to uniquely
> match you with your myspace profile?  and uses this to sue in court?
> despite what the above blogpost says data record matching is a tricky
> problem.  i think this is a paranoid scenario.

I'm not envisioning any particular scenario, and I agree that many are
paranoid. I'm just very uneasy with claims that anonymization is easy
or that users should be given high expectations of anonymity from
supposedly anonymized data.

> but, you have a valid position.  and maybe i'm in the minority.  altho
> you did agree to openly share your personal listening habits earlier
> :-)

There's no although. I both don't want to make guarantees of anonymity
for others and do want to my non-anonymous data made as widely
available as possible.

> i still believe that any obscure risk posed by anonymous user data is
> out weighed by potential benefits.

I believe that the risks posed by non-"anonymous" user data is
outweighed by the benefits of raw and complete data.

Mike
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