Pseudonymization is a procedure by which all person-related data within a data record is replaced by one artificial identifier (like a hash value) that maps one-to-one (comment: not necessarily; a hash is also not bijective. only injective property, i.e. mapping from identifier to data record must hold) to the person. The artificial pseudonym always allows tracking back of data to its origins which is the difference with anonymized data (comment: better distinction is given in [1]), where all person-related data that could allow backtracking has been purged. Pseudonymization is an issue, e.g. in patient-related data that has to be passed on securely between clinical centers.
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