How about a table of 1,000 numbers that translates a specific 3 digit number to another 3 digit number. Use it 3 times on 3 parts of your 9 digit number.
On Tue, May 29, 2012 at 9:53 AM, Roberts, John J <[email protected]> wrote: >>>Just curious: how would you mask names and addresses? Of course, if >>these >>>are not used as keys some constraints such as uniqueness are relaxed. > >>>-- gil > > Our data records have fields for first name, last name, and gender. They of > course do not need to be unique. But the masking algorithm must be > deterministic. So if we have a name "JOHN SMITH" that our algorithm > translates to "FRED COLLINS", then "JOHN SMITH" must become "FRED COLLINS" > across all files. > > My technique for doing the transformation is as follows: > (1) I have a table of several hundred surnames. > (2) Also another table of female first names. > (3) Yet another table of male first names. > > To transform a surname, I put the real surname thru a hash function and use > the value obtained as an index into my table of surnames. > > To transform a first name, I put the real first name thru the hash function > and then use the value as an index into the proper given name table, as > selected using the gender code. > > So, using a scheme such as this, "JOHN SMITH" will always get translated to > the same fictitious value (e.g. "FRED COLLINS"). But someone seeing "FRED > COLLINS" in a test file won't be able to conclude that this is really a > record for "JOHN SMITH", since thousands of other real names will also > translate to "FRED COLLINS". > > Transforming addresses uses a similar idea to mask the street name, although > it gets a bit ugly at times. Street number will be masked by hashing. > Fortunately, we do not need to worry about creating fictitious addresses that > are in the USPS database. > > John > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- Mike A Schwab, Springfield IL USA Where do Forest Rangers go to get away from it all? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
