Explanation
Anonymization is the correct answer because:
- Anonymization refers to the process of irreversibly altering personal data so that the data subject cannot be identified directly or indirectly
- It is a permanent process that removes all identifying information
- Once data is anonymized, it is no longer considered personal data under privacy regulations like GDPR
Why the other options are incorrect:
- Tokenization: This involves replacing sensitive data with non-sensitive equivalents (tokens) that can be reversed with the proper key
- Pseudonymization: This replaces identifying fields with pseudonyms, but the original data can still be recovered using additional information
- Binning: This is a data preprocessing technique for grouping continuous data into categories, not specifically for privacy protection
The key distinction is that anonymization is irreversible, while pseudonymization and tokenization are reversible processes that still maintain the ability to identify individuals under certain conditions.