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The discombobulation of de-identification

Nature Biotechnology volume 34, pages 1102–1103 (2016)Cite this article

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To the Editor:

In 2005 one of us (B.M.K.) coauthored a Correspondence in your pages entitled “The Babel of genetic data terminology,” which warned of a dangerously inconsistent and confusing set of terms in the literature describing the identifiability of genetic data1. We now are writing to report that, in the intervening decade, the literature has become even more discombobulated with regard to terminology. Here we summarize the Babel-like lexicon for de-identified data and provide our own suggestions for harmonizing terms.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge funding from the Cancer Genome Collaboratory and from Can-SHARE.

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  1. Centre of Genomics and Policy, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

    Mark Phillips & Bartha M Knoppers

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Correspondence to Mark Phillips.

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Phillips, M., Knoppers, B. The discombobulation of de-identification. Nat Biotechnol 34, 1102–1103 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt.3696

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