Partner Article

Mastek welcomes anonymisation code of practice from Information

Mastek, the global provider of enterprise-level technology services and software solutions, today welcomes the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) publication of its anonymisation and managing data protection risk code of practice. The government’s open data agenda and freedom of information will increase transparency and inevitably provide more trust in public services.

Outside of England in particular, where there is less emphasis on market forces to improve health services, the transparency agenda will enable performance management solutions that will help organisations to be more proactive, allow comparisons to be made and share best practice, all of which in turn, will improve services to the public.

Mastek is now one of the leading suppliers of Anonymisation and Pseudonymisation solutions to the UK Health sector. As the new ICO anonymisation code of practice acknowledges, there is no single method to ensure privacy and different scenarios demand a specific approach. It was for this reason that in developing the anonymisation and pseudonymisation solution Kameleon™, Mastek ensured it delivered an unparalleled blend of functionality including masking, blurring, trimming, replacement with meaningful values and pseudonymisation. All of this is delivered to Data Protection Act (DPA) and NHS Information Governance standards guidelines.

Elwyn Jones, Senior Vice President Government & Health at Mastek says: “We fully endorse the ICO’s code of practice and pseudonymisation has a vital role to play when it comes to implementation. The increased understanding organisations will derive from the new code, will ensure that they are protected and have the confidence to share information. Enabling research, business intelligence, and benchmarking are just some of the many benefits as organisations are empowered to take a more proactive stance.”

Elwyn Jones at Mastek continues: “Over the past two years we have seen moves towards effective pseudonymisation in the UK Health sector in particular and consequently greater demand for Mastek’s anonymisation and pseudonymisation solution Kameleon™ (the most recent implementation coming from a competitive procurement conducted by Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust). We fully expect this trend to continue as more and more organisations ensure they are fully in line with the rules. The ICO’s code of practice is another step to ensure that public data is protected as it should be.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Mastek UK .