Here, we illustrate differential trade-offs between valid research inferences
and de-identification methods by comparing two de-identification
approaches: one that favors generalization
over suppression (hereafter referred to as the Generalization Emphasis, or GE, method),
and one that favors suppression over generalization (hereafter referred to as the Suppression Emphasis, or SE, method). There are other ways to approach the problem of de-identification, but these were two that were easily implemented.
Our intent is not to discern the dominance of one technique over the other in any general case but rather to show that
trade-offs between anonymity and valid research inferences a)
are unavoidable and b) will depend on the method of de-identification.