Current Issues of Anonymisation and Re-Identification, With Special Regard to the Rendering of Court Decisions Unrecognisable

Abstract

Anonymisation is not just about rendering or blacking out names and identifiers. It is demonstrated by the fact that all of us have come across situations where, despite all these apparent efforts at anonymisation, a person has remained recognisable, or has become so after a few simple Internet searches. This paper outlines the current issues of anonymisation, paying particular attention to the trends in EU and Hungarian legal interpretation of the relative approach to the concept of personal data, as well as to the distinction between anonymisation and pseudonymisation. A number of good practices on anonymisation and non-disclosure will be presented in order to optimise the practices of both public authorities and private actors. In particular, the focus will be on the specific rules for the publication of judicial decisions, which are accessible to all without any limitation in time. The study also focuses on the issue of court and public authority case numbers, and the de-identification of public figures, however, its greatest contribution is the collection and presentation of good and bad practices in specific cases.