'Unlinkable Data Challenge' Opens with $50k Grand Prize

Think you have a clever way to unlock big public data for analysis without compromising citizens' privacy? Then the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) would like to hear from you for its "Unlinkable Data Challenge," which carries a grand prize of $50,000. Governments collect a lot of data, just as their corporate counterparts do. There are driver's license records, tax returns, arrest records, welfare claims, health data, airline records, and much more. But instead of cutting costs and boosting profits, which are typical goals in the corporate sector, governments ostensibly aim to improve the quality of life for its citizens through things like improving contagious disease tracking, identifying patterns of violence in communities, and planning for disasters. Despite the good intentions, all this public data carries significant risks to the privacy and security of the citizens that the data describes.