De-personalised Information

This relates to information where any reference to or means of an identifying a living individual(s) has been removed. It is the responsibility of the data holder to ensure that the process of de-personalisation has been completed before it is disclosed to another organisation. The same legal and other considerations in relation to non-personal data may also apply.

De-personalised information can be of exceptional value at the strategic level for identifying crime hot spots, general or specific patterns of crime and the timing and nature of offences. Depending upon what format the information is collected, this information can often be utilised in crime maps, which can be useful for highlighting specific problem areas for use in consultation with partners or the general public.

Incidences of burglary, assaults, street, vehicle, drug and many other offences can all be successfully plotted on crime maps for the purpose of analysis, consultation and public demonstration.

Privacy-Enhancing Technology (PET) software can assist in this process and a number of related applications and can be particularly helpful for converting and preparing existing datasets for use in Geographical Information-based systems.

The Data Protection Commissioner has issued advice that an address or even a post code can be considered to be personal data if it there is only one individual living at that address or in that post code. Nevertheless, it may still be possible to disclose this information for certain purposes in given circumstances.

Where multiple de-personalised data sets from a number of different sources are combined or compared with similar information (which may be in the public domain), there is a risk that an individual could be identified. The increased use of technology for mapping and other purposes makes this increasingly likely in the future.

Agencies should always seek to avoid this situation arising. To counter this, de-personalised data should be held securely and destroyed when no longer required. Policy on handling de-personalised information should be incorporated into an Information Sharing protocol, where potential exists for a breach of confidentiality to occur.

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