Skip to content
The Madison Avenue Field GuideA field guide to marketing & advertising, by Brandon Mina

GlossaryPrivacy & IdentityAnonymization

Privacy & Identity

Anonymization

Irreversibly processing data so individuals can no longer be identified by any reasonable means, taking it outside the scope of GDPR.

By Brandon MinaCEO, BrandPilot AIUpdated November 2026

Short answer

Anonymization is irreversibly processing data so individuals can no longer be identified by any reasonable means. Truly anonymized data falls outside the scope of GDPR. Achieving it is difficult, since combining datasets can re-identify people, so simply removing names or hashing emails usually does not qualify.