“Pseudonymisation” is a fundamental tool for protecting the personal data of natural persons in order to guarantee them full and total confidentiality.
“Pseudonymisation” is a technique which consists of processing personal data in such a way that the data can no longer be attributed to a specific data subject without the use of additional information.
This additional information, also called “keys”, must be physically stored in SEPARATE AREAS from the PERSONAL data: for example, in separate servers, in order to prevent easy reunification between them.
The «pseudonymisation» therefore guarantees the absence of direct identification of the interested party with his/her own data.
Applying pseudonymisation to personal data can, at the same time, reduce the risks for data subjects and help data controllers and processors meet their data protection obligations.
What to do in practice?
With «pseudonymisation», the personal data, instead of being immediately associated with the interested parties, are associated with alphanumeric codes (true “pseudonyms”, such as stage names). The identification is therefore not immediate, but requires additional information, that is, it requires knowing the links between the pseudonyms and the interested parties. In this way, only those who know this links can trace the natural persons to whom the data refer.
