Evaluating re-identification risks scores in publicly available clinical trial datasets: Insights and implications.

ABSTRACT: BackgroundThe motivations to share anonymised datasets from clinical trials within the scientific community are increasing. Many anonymised datasets are now publicly available for secondary research. However, it is uncertain whether they pose a privacy risk to the involved participants.MethodsWe located a broad sample of publicly available, de-identified/anonymised randomised clinical trial datasets from human participants and contacted their owners to request access, following their local procedures. We classified personal data within these datasets, including unique direct identifiers such as date of birth and other personal data that, on their own, does not identify an individual but may do so when combined with each other, such as sex, age and race (indirect identifiers). Combining ind

SUBMITTER: Rodriguez A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12647387 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature