k-anonymity
k-anonymity is a property possessed by certain anonymized data. The term k-anonymity was first introduced by Pierangela Samarati and Latanya Sweeney in a paper published in 1998, although the concept dates to a 1986 paper by Tore Dalenius.
k-anonymity is an attempt to solve the problem "Given person-specific field-structured data, produce a release of the data with scientific guarantees that the individuals who are the subjects of the data cannot be re-identified while the data remain practically useful." A release of data is said to have the k-anonymity property if the information for each person contained in the release cannot be distinguished from at least individuals whose information also appear in the release. Unfortunately, the guarantees provided by k-anonymity are aspirational, not mathematical.
