The article "Anonymization: The imperfect science of using data while preserving privacy" by Andrea Gadotti, Luc Rocher, Florimond Houssiau, Ana-Maria Crețu, and Yves-Alexandre de Montjoye provides a comprehensive review of the field of anonymization, focusing on the challenges and techniques for protecting privacy while sharing data. The authors discuss traditional de-identification techniques and their limitations in the age of big data, and then explore modern approaches such as data query systems, synthetic data, and differential privacy. They emphasize that while no perfect solution exists, combining formal methods with empirical evaluation of robustness against attacks is the best approach to safely use and share data. The review covers the technical and legal aspects of anonymization, including the definitions of anonymous and de-identified data, the privacy-utility trade-off, and the trust and adversary models. It also delves into the vulnerabilities of record-level data to re-identification attacks and the effectiveness of aggregate data in mitigating these risks. The article concludes by highlighting the ongoing debate between formalists and pragmatists in the field, emphasizing the need for a balanced perspective that considers both technical and legal considerations.The article "Anonymization: The imperfect science of using data while preserving privacy" by Andrea Gadotti, Luc Rocher, Florimond Houssiau, Ana-Maria Crețu, and Yves-Alexandre de Montjoye provides a comprehensive review of the field of anonymization, focusing on the challenges and techniques for protecting privacy while sharing data. The authors discuss traditional de-identification techniques and their limitations in the age of big data, and then explore modern approaches such as data query systems, synthetic data, and differential privacy. They emphasize that while no perfect solution exists, combining formal methods with empirical evaluation of robustness against attacks is the best approach to safely use and share data. The review covers the technical and legal aspects of anonymization, including the definitions of anonymous and de-identified data, the privacy-utility trade-off, and the trust and adversary models. It also delves into the vulnerabilities of record-level data to re-identification attacks and the effectiveness of aggregate data in mitigating these risks. The article concludes by highlighting the ongoing debate between formalists and pragmatists in the field, emphasizing the need for a balanced perspective that considers both technical and legal considerations.