What does Deidentification refer to?

• A. Data format
• B. Deidentification
• C. Declassification
• D. Data Tag

Answer: (B)

Deidentification is the process of removing or masking personal identifiers from data so that individuals cannot be identified. This protects privacy when data is stored, analyzed, or shared, by stripping out direct identifiers like names, addresses, phone numbers, and other details that could link data to a person. It may also involve generalizing or suppressing other attributes to reduce re-identification risk, sometimes with pseudonyms used to link records only when you have the separate key.

This idea is distinct from data format, which deals with how data is structured; declassification, which would release information that was previously restricted; and data tagging, which is simply labeling data for classification or handling.