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. The guarantees provided by k-anonymity are aspirational, not mathematical.
