This are Lee Newcombe's (KPMG) slides from his talk on the perils and opportunity of Open Data - 13.02.15 @ODILeeds.

1. FEEL
FREE
A NEW APPROACH
TO CYBER SECURITY
ODI – Open Data and
Privacy
1
© 2015 KPMG LLP, a UK limited liability partnership and a member firm of the KPMG network of independent member
firms affiliated with KPMG International Cooperative (“KPMG International”), a Swiss entity. All rights reserved..

2. AGENDA
2
© 2015 KPMG LLP, a UK limited liability partnership and a member firm of the KPMG network of independent member
firms affiliated with KPMG International Cooperative (“KPMG International”), a Swiss entity. All rights reserved.
• Introduction
• It’s good to be positive. However…
• Stripping data and anonymisation
• When things go wrong
• Sources of Guidance

3. Introduction
3
© 2015 KPMG LLP, a UK limited liability partnership and a member firm of the KPMG network of independent member
firms affiliated with KPMG International Cooperative (“KPMG International”), a Swiss entity. All rights reserved.
• 17 years in information assurance and cybersecurity
• Worked with many of the large HMG data
repositories across health, education, tax, law
enforcement… from a security perspective
• Investigated opening up access to a large HMG
dataset (~20m citizens)… in the Open Data context.

4. 4
© 2015 KPMG LLP, a UK limited liability partnership and a member firm of the KPMG network of independent member
firms affiliated with KPMG International Cooperative (“KPMG International”), a Swiss entity. All rights reserved.
The Positive
View!
• Open Data not always BIG DATA
• BIG DATA can be Open Data
• Tremendous value in unlocking the relationships
within (and between) datasets
• Correlation vs causation
• New opportunities
• Increasing transparency

5. 5
© 2015 KPMG LLP, a UK limited liability partnership and a member firm of the KPMG network of independent member
firms affiliated with KPMG International Cooperative (“KPMG International”), a Swiss entity. All rights reserved.
It’s good to be
positive.
However…
• Often assumed that Open Data will only be used by
the Good Guys to deliver well-intentioned services
• Public is more cynical
• Need to sell the benefits to the data subjects!

6. 6
© 2015 KPMG LLP, a UK limited liability partnership and a member firm of the KPMG network of independent member
firms affiliated with KPMG International Cooperative (“KPMG International”), a Swiss entity. All rights reserved.
It’s good to be
positive.
However…

7. 7
© 2015 KPMG LLP, a UK limited liability partnership and a member firm of the KPMG network of independent member
firms affiliated with KPMG International Cooperative (“KPMG International”), a Swiss entity. All rights reserved.
Example -
Health
http://www.patients-association.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/APPG-Report-on-Care-data.pdf

8. 8
© 2015 KPMG LLP, a UK limited liability partnership and a member firm of the KPMG network of independent member
firms affiliated with KPMG International Cooperative (“KPMG International”), a Swiss entity. All rights reserved.
Example -
Health
“The legal penalties to be imposed on individuals and
organisations who misuse or abuse patient data remain to
be resolved.”
http://www.patients-association.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/APPG-Report-on-Care-data.pdf
“Patients and the public are broadly supportive
of the principle of using health data for
research that is in the public interest.”
“However, all organisations agreed that the public
had been inadequately consulted in the early stages
of the Care.data programme and that it was
therefore correct to halt the programme to allow
further public consultation.”

9. 9
© 2015 KPMG LLP, a UK limited liability partnership and a member firm of the KPMG network of independent member
firms affiliated with KPMG International Cooperative (“KPMG International”), a Swiss entity. All rights reserved.
Trust is
important
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/367788/Sir_Nick_Partridge_s_summary_of_the_review.pdf

10. 10
© 2015 KPMG LLP, a UK limited liability partnership and a member firm of the KPMG network of independent member
firms affiliated with KPMG International Cooperative (“KPMG International”), a Swiss entity. All rights reserved.
Trust is
important
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/367788/Sir_Nick_Partridge_s_summary_of_the_review.pdf
“It disappoints me to report that the review has discovered
lapses in the strict arrangements that were supposed to be
in place to ensure that people’s personal data would never
be used improperly.”
“The data provided to these other organisations under data
sharing agreements is not anonymised. Although names and
addresses are normally removed, it is possible that the identity
of individuals may be deduced if the data is linked to other data.”
588 data releases to a range of private sector organisations
including “four Data Sharing Agreements made by the NHS IC with
three re-insurance companies which allow those re-insurers to
continue to use the data until the agreements expire in 2015 and
2016”
3059
Releases
of Data

11. Sell it to your
data subjects!
11
DO:
• Know the benefits before you begin
• Data subjects should also benefit
• The public are cynical about private sector profiting from their data
- But happy to share if they also see or feel the benefit, e.g. social media
• Know and publicise the controls you will have in place
• Anonymisation
• Data sharing agreements
• Consult with representatives of the data subjects
• Obtain opt-in and consent
Benefits Risks
© 2015 KPMG LLP, a UK limited liability partnership and a member firm of the KPMG network of independent member
firms affiliated with KPMG International Cooperative (“KPMG International”), a Swiss entity. All rights reserved.

12. Sell it to your
data subjects!
12
DO NOT:
• Assume the public share a utopian vision of the benefits of Open Data
• Attempt to provide vague assurances that their data will be secure – you
will get called out*
• Plough on regardless
* Or worse, held accountable – the ICO is watching….
Benefits Risks
© 2015 KPMG LLP, a UK limited liability partnership and a member firm of the KPMG network of independent member
firms affiliated with KPMG International Cooperative (“KPMG International”), a Swiss entity. All rights reserved.

13. • Removing personally identifiable information ≠ anonymisation!
• Utility and value of data is inversely proportional to level of anonymisation
• Danger with Open Data lies in information gain not just re-identification
• Can gain knowledge of characteristics without full re-identification
• Do not view your records in isolation, linked datasets make re-identification
more straightforward
• What’s anonymous for Joe Bloggs is not anonymous for Celebrity X
• Family, Nosy Neighbours, Employers…
Stripping Data
and
Anonymisation
13
© 2015 KPMG LLP, a UK limited liability partnership and a member firm of the KPMG network of independent member
firms affiliated with KPMG International Cooperative (“KPMG International”), a Swiss entity. All rights reserved.
“Data protection law does not apply to data
rendered anonymous in such a way that the
data subject is no longer identifiable.”

14. Stripping Data
and
Anonymisation
14
© 2015 KPMG LLP, a UK limited liability partnership and a member firm of the KPMG network of independent member
firms affiliated with KPMG International Cooperative (“KPMG International”), a Swiss entity. All rights reserved.
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/367788/Sir_Nick_Partridge_s_summary_of_the_review.pdf
Below table is taken from the Partridge Review of Data Releases by the NHS
Information Centre. It’s an example only.

15. Enough to identify edge cases,
e.g. tall, overweight, out of town
pupils. Likely also enough to
enable many non-edge cases to
be identified in small cohorts.
Link to National Pupil Database
may also then enable information
gain – ethnicity, financial status,
academic attainment, exclusion
flags etc.
Stripping Data
and
Anonymisation
15
© 2015 KPMG LLP, a UK limited liability partnership and a member firm of the KPMG network of independent member
firms affiliated with KPMG International Cooperative (“KPMG International”), a Swiss entity. All rights reserved.
Pupil ID shared
with other HMG
databases?
Gives the month
of birth of the
child
Provides physical
characteristics of
the child
Provides
geographic
location of school
Provides
geographic
location of child

16. • AOL: release of “anonymised” search queries
• Media: The Freedom of Information Act attacks!
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/health/aes-frequent-flyers-one-woman-8370650
• Netflix: release of “anonymised” film reviews
• Target: the scary side of Big Data
When things go
wrong…
16
© 2015 KPMG LLP, a UK limited liability partnership and a member firm of the KPMG network of independent member
firms affiliated with KPMG International Cooperative (“KPMG International”), a Swiss entity. All rights reserved.

17. What you can
do…
17
© 2015 KPMG LLP, a UK limited liability partnership and a member firm of the KPMG network of independent member
firms affiliated with KPMG International Cooperative (“KPMG International”), a Swiss entity. All rights reserved.
• Aggregation, sampling, re-coding, perturbation,
suppression, substitution etc
• Only release aggregates where you can!
• With small numbers removed
• Re-code to remove uniqueness
• E.g. Date of birth re-coded to age ranges

18. What you can
do…
18
© 2015 KPMG LLP, a UK limited liability partnership and a member firm of the KPMG network of independent member
firms affiliated with KPMG International Cooperative (“KPMG International”), a Swiss entity. All rights reserved.
• k-privacy, t-closeness, l-diversity, differential privacy
• k-privacy – impossible to unambiguously identify an individual as k
records have the same attributes
• Does not prevent information gain
• All k records share same attributes
• Tools exist to help
• http://arx.deidentifier.org,
• http://neon.vb.cbs.nl/casc/mu.htm

19. What you can
do…
19
© 2015 KPMG LLP, a UK limited liability partnership and a member firm of the KPMG network of independent member
firms affiliated with KPMG International Cooperative (“KPMG International”), a Swiss entity. All rights reserved.
• Create different data sets for different purposes
• Tier your data based on levels of uniqueness
• Place tighter controls on more unique tiers
• Create and ENFORCE data sharing agreements
• Still awaiting criminalisation of attempts to re-identity anonymised data
• Use Safe Havens where you can
• Data remains in a controlled environment
• Usage can be monitored, controlled and investigated.

20. SOURCES OF
GUIDANCE
20
© 2015 KPMG LLP, a UK limited liability partnership and a member firm of the KPMG network of independent member
firms affiliated with KPMG International Cooperative (“KPMG International”), a Swiss entity. All rights reserved.

21. SOURCES OF
GUIDANCE
21
© 2015 KPMG LLP, a UK limited liability partnership and a member firm of the KPMG network of independent member
firms affiliated with KPMG International Cooperative (“KPMG International”), a Swiss entity. All rights reserved.
• UK Anonymisation
Network:
http://ukanon.net
• ISO 29100 (Privacy
Framework)
• Us!
Anon

22. PARTING
THOUGHTS
22
© 2015 KPMG LLP, a UK limited liability partnership and a member firm of the KPMG network of independent member
firms affiliated with KPMG International Cooperative (“KPMG International”), a Swiss entity. All rights reserved.
“In theory there is
no difference
between theory and
practice. In
practice there is.”
Yogi Berra

23. THANK
YOU
PRESENTATION BY
LEE NEWCOMBE
E-mail:
lee.newcombe@kpmg.co.uk
Mob:
07468711307
Twitter:
@lee_newcombe