Personal identifiers
Other identifiers
Health data
You have chosen to store your data on the local device. This means you do not have to comply with any data protection legislation.
Risks
Technically, this is a risky solution. If the user loses or replaces their device, all their data is gone.
Our advice
Our advice is to store this data in the cloud using pseudonymization and application-level encryption.
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GET THE EBOOKPrefer to talk to us about your specific case?
Get help from our team of compliance expertsYou do not collect or store any user information. However, if you manage confidential or proprietary data you should still put additional security measures in place.
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Get help from our team of compliance expertsYou store anonymous data meaning it has no personal identifiers. However, getting anonymisation right is hard.
NB if you assign any ID, your data is no longer anonymous.
Linkability & re-identification
Anonymised data can be linked with other data sets to enable re-identification of the original person. Ensuring this can't happen is remarkably hard, even if you apply modern techniques like differential privacy.
Data utility
Anonymised data can only be used for things such as business intelligence, marketing and analytics. We often find that customers want to be able to make primary use of the data as well, in which case anonymisation is not appropriate.
In case you want to learn more about data security and data protection download our eBook
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Get help from our team of compliance expertsYou store so-called quasi-identifiers. Quasi-identifiers are sometimes a grey area for data protection.
Recombining identifiers
Different quasi-identifiers can be combined in order to allow reidentification. For instance, in the UK, most people can be uniquely identified by combining their date of birth and postcode. This means your data is not anonymous and must still be protected.
Do you need this data?
You should carefully consider whether you need to collect this data or not. If you do need it, then you will need to put in place suitable data security and protection measures. Contact us for expert advice on this.
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Need specific advice?
Get help from our team of compliance expertsYou are storing highly sensitive health data that must be protected properly. Both GDPR and HIPAA mandate certain organisational and technical measures you must use.
Technical measures
Technical measures include pseudonymization, application-level encryption and proper user management. Pseudonymization involves removing all personal identifiers from the data and replacing them with a random ID. Application-level (also called record-level) encryption involves encrypting each user's records with a unique secret key.
Organisational measures
Organisational measures involve implementing the data subject rights granted by GDPR and HIPAA. This includes things like right to be forgotten, data access rights and consent tracking.
Costs
Implementing these organisational and technical measures yourself is time-consuming and complex. If you get it wrong you risk huge fines, reputational damage and loss of trust. Talk to us to learn how Chino.io can help you with our technology, technical consulting and legal expertise.
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Got some specific questions?
Get help from our team of compliance expertsFrom our analysis of your answers, you are collecting personal data. Within the EU and many other jurisdictions, personal data must be properly protected.
GDPR rules
Under GDPR, you can only process (collect) data if you have a lawful basis to do so. This basis is often consent (the user agrees to the processing), but many other bases exist. If you are using consent as the basis, you must put in place systems and procedures to track this.
Learn more about data security and compliance
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Got some specific questions?
Get help from our team of compliance expertsFrom analysing your answers, you are storing data that may be sensitive.
Health data
Health data is defined as
"personal data related to the physical or mental health of a natural person, including the provision of health care services, which reveal information about his or her health status". GDPR art. 4(15)
However, fitness data falls into a grey area.
Fitness data
Well-being and fitness-tracking apps often collect data that may count as health data. According to the current EU Data Protection Directives, "data that might allow a user's health status to be inferred" is considered potentially sensitive and additional security safeguards must be applied. This must be judged on a case-by-case basis.
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Still unsure what sort of data you are collecting?
Get help from our team of compliance expertsYou store pseudonymous data, which is highly sensitive data without direct identifiers. Within the EU and many other jurisdictions, pseudonymous data counts as personal data. This means you still have to comply with all GDPR rules.
GDPR rules
Under GDPR, you can only process (collect) data if you have a lawful basis to do so. This basis is often consent (the user agrees to the processing), but many other bases exist. If you are using consent as the basis, you must put in place systems and procedures to track this.
Data encryption and related tecnical measures
GDPR suggests health data should be stored using application-level encryption. Application-level (also called record-level) encryption involves encrypting each user's records with a unique secret key. This is in addition to pseudonymization.
Costs
Implementing these technical measures yourself is time-consuming and complex. If you get it wrong you risk huge fines, reputational damage and loss of trust. Talk to us to learn how Chino.io can help you with our technology, technical consulting and legal expertise.
Learn more about data security and compliance
in our eBook
Got some specific questions?
Get help from our team of compliance experts