# Privacy by the Numbers: A New Approach to Safeguarding Data | Quanta Magazine  ## About - Author: Erica Klarreich - Title: Privacy by the Numbers: A New Approach to Safeguarding Data | Quanta Magazine - Tags: #articles - URL: https://www.quantamagazine.org/a-mathematical-approach-to-safeguarding-private-data-20121210/ ## Highlights In 1997, when Massachusetts began making health records of state employees available to medical researchers, the government removed patients’ names, addresses, and Social Security numbers. ... Although the state had removed all obvious identifiers, it had left each patient’s date of birth, sex and ZIP code. By cross-referencing this information with voter-registration records, Latanya Sweeney was able to pinpoint Weld’s records. ---