Date: Sun, 14 Jan 2007 11:13:13 -0500
Reply-To: Don Henderson <donaldjhenderson@HOTMAIL.COM>
Sender: "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From: Don Henderson <donaldjhenderson@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: how to replace SSNs with fake
In-Reply-To: <BAY123-F249854E30F86BB8DAC30ACDEB60@phx.gbl>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Given the HIPPA issues that Rob raised, and the need for guaranteed
uniqueness (which none of the random number schemes can do without a lot of
extra processing), it seems to me that the use of the UUIDGEN function along
with a translation table (needed, if for no other reason so one can know
when assigning the UUID whether a new one is needed) is the way to go.
Just my $0.02.
-don
> -----Original Message-----
> From: SAS(r) Discussion [mailto:SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of toby
> dunn
> Sent: Saturday, January 13, 2007 11:50 PM
> To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: how to replace SSNs with fake
>
> Rob ,
>
> I did mention I use to use an encyrption macro, which worked suprisingly
> beter than I could have imagined once it was brought up to 256 bit
> encryption. Truth be told everything except a encryption made by one
> person, that refers to something that that one person only knows and never
> leaves that person is crackable. PGP wasnt allowed to leave the US
> because
> the US Military with super computers could barely handle if at all. So it
> all comes down to what you shop and the lawyers say is proper for your
> data.
>
>
>
> Toby Dunn
>
> To sensible men, every day is a day of reckoning. ~John W. Gardner
>
> The important thing is this: To be able at any moment to sacrifice that
> which we are for what we could become. ~Charles DuBois
>
> Don't get your knickers in a knot. Nothing is solved and it just makes you
> walk funny. ~Kathryn Carpenter
>
>
>
>
>
>
> From: Rob Rohrbough <Rob@ROHRBOUGH-SYSTEMS.COM>
> Reply-To: Rob Rohrbough <Rob@ROHRBOUGH-SYSTEMS.COM>
> To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: how to replace SSNs with fake
> Date: Sat, 13 Jan 2007 21:59:58 -0600
>
> FWIW, I am not sure encryptions or even one-way hashes satisfy HIPAA. I
> believe those are specifically prohibited. So, all the transformation
> suggestions may not be useful (or legal in HIPAA-ese). I am not an
> expert,
> but the suggestions that advocate some kind of a crosswalk probably are
> closer to satisfying HIPAA requirements for a "meaningless" number. Such
> a
> number cannot be a derivation of the original personal health identifier.
> The advantage is that, no matter how good encryption cracking gets, a
> meaningless number is not derived from anything that can identify the
> patient.
>
> A randomly-assigned number is what my clients use for visitation analysis.
> Note that you do not even need to use a SAS random number generation
> function. Just assigning numbers sequentially may be good enough if there
> is no pattern to their assignment in relation to the identifiers. If you
> do
> need to an are authorized to identify the individual, you do need to keep
> the crosswalk table (which you will need to guarantee proper assignment of
> the meaningless number anyway), of course in a secure location.
>
> I could be wrong about all of this since a number of well-respected
> posters,
> including Toby, clearly are not worrying about encryption or a hash
> approach. I probably am overly cautious based on client input and
> direction, out here in the boonies of Nebraska.
>
> My $0.02, or so,
>
> Rob
>
> Rob Rohrbough
> Omaha, NE, USA
>
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: toby dunn [mailto:tobydunn@HOTMAIL.COM]
> > Sent: Friday, January 12, 2007 2:30 PM
> > Subject: Re: how to replace SSNs with fake
> >
> >
> > Sig my fellow Texan lost some where up north, how is it going?
> >
> > The best way I found to do this on a large scale was to
> > create a encyrption
> > macro that can encrypt and decrypt based off a randomly
> > generated key where
> > on ekey gets assigned to a project.
> >
> >
> > Toby Dunn
> >
> > To sensible men, every day is a day of reckoning. ~John W. Gardner
> >
> > The important thing is this: To be able at any moment to
> > sacrifice that
> > which we are for what we could become. ~Charles DuBois
> >
> > Don't get your knickers in a knot. Nothing is solved and it
> > just makes you
> > walk funny. ~Kathryn Carpenter
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > From: Sigurd Hermansen <HERMANS1@WESTAT.COM>
> > Reply-To: Sigurd Hermansen <HERMANS1@WESTAT.COM>
> > To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> > Subject: Re: how to replace SSNs with fake
> > Date: Fri, 12 Jan 2007 15:21:52 -0500
> >
> > Jen:
> > Best to do this very carefully.... What you call a fake ID will likely
> > become a surrogate ID for each person's SSN. Someone needs to take
> > responsibility for maintaining a 'key ring' or crosswalk dataset that
> > has a surrogate ID and its corresponding SSN in each row.
> >
> > I'd construct the key ring in two steps. First, create a column of
> > distinct instances of SSN. In SAS SQL,
> >
> > create table key as select distinct SSN from <dataset>;
> >
> > Second, create a non-informative surrogate ID for each distinct SSN:
> >
> > create table keyRing as select put(ranuni(1773)*100000000,z9.) as
> > ID,SSN from key;
> >
> > One can then join the keyring to a dataset on SSN and
> > substitute the ID
> > for the SSN in a new dataset. Reversing the process restores the SSN
> > when required for identification of subjects. For the ID I have used a
> > purely random number that will duplicate if applied to large
> > numbers of
> > SSN. (Cehck for duplicated ID's.) In the event of duplicates, it will
> > take a somewhat more complicated process to guarantee distinct ID's.
> >
> > I've mentioned a Data Privacy By Design paper that a colleague of mine
> > and I wrote some time back for a CDC conference. It
> > illustrates some of
> > the uses of surrogate key ID's.
> > Sig
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: owner-sas-l@listserv.uga.edu
> > [mailto:owner-sas-l@listserv.uga.edu]
> > On Behalf Of Jen
> > Sent: Friday, January 12, 2007 12:39 PM
> > To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> > Cc: Jennifer Sabatier
> > Subject: how to replace SSNs with fake
> >
> >
> > Hello,
> >
> > I have a file of information about people and I want to create an id
> > variable to replace SSN. In this file people have multiple rows, ie,
> > some SSNs have multiple rows, others don't.
> >
> > I know this probably a simple request but I couldn't find something
> > similar in a search.
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > Jen
> >
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