JCSE, vol. 5, no. 3, pp.223-235, September, 2011

DOI: 10.5626/JCSE.2011.5.3.223/

Secure Blocking + Secure Matching = Secure Record Linkage

Alexandros Karakasidis, Vassilios S. Verykios
Department of Computer and Communication Engineering, University of Thessaly, Volos, Greece/ School of Science and Technology, Hellenic Open University, Patras, Greece

Abstract: Performing approximate data matching has always been an intriguing problem for both industry and academia. This task becomes even more challenging when the requirement of data privacy rises. In this paper, we propose a novel technique to address the problem of efficient privacy-preserving approximate record linkage. The secure framework we propose consists of two basic components. First, we utilize a secure blocking component based on phonetic algorithms statistically enhanced to improve security. Second, we use a secure matching component where actual approximate matching is performed using a novel private approach of the Levenshtein Distance algorithm. Our goal is to combine the speed of private blocking with the increased accuracy of approximate secure matching.

Keyword: Security privacy; Record linkage; Approximate matching; Phonetic codes; Edit distance

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