The Guide to Getting Started with Anonymisation (“Guide“) was launched at the 63rd Asia Pacific Privacy Authorities (“APPA“) Forum on 11 June 2025. The Guide seeks to help organisations adopt anonymisation practices to safeguard personal data. It provides an overview of basic anonymisation concepts and outlines practical steps for organisations to get started on their anonymisation journey.
The Guide sets out a suggested anonymisation process as follows:
- Know your data;
- Remove direct identifiers;
- Apply anonymisation techniques;
- Assess risks; and
- Manage risks;
Other than the process described above, the Guide states that organisations can also refer to ISO/IEC 27559, which provides a useful framework and considerations for context assessment, data assessment, identifiability assessment and mitigation, and governance.
The Guide also contains the following:
- Other recommended practices, such as periodic reviews and keeping of records;
- Resources on anonymisation from ISO/IEC and individual jurisdictions; and
- Hypothetical example to illustrate the steps described.
Click on the following links for more information:
- Press Release titled “Guide to Getting Started on Anonymisation Unveiled at 63rd APPA Forum” (available on the Personal Data Protection Commission website at pdpc.gov.sg)
- Guide to Getting Started with Anonymisation (available on the APPA website at appaforum.org)