Patent ID: 8631500

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving, at a computer executing an anonymization application, a data set at an anonymization engine, the data set comprising a plurality of tuples; ordering, by the computer, the tuples in the data set according to an aspect of the tuples; partitioning, by the computer, the tuples into a plurality of buckets, each of the plurality of buckets comprising a predefined number of the tuples; selecting, by the computer, a bucket of the plurality of buckets as a group; determining, by the computer, if the group satisfies a privacy requirement; and if a determination is made that the group does not satisfy the privacy requirement, determining if a further bucket of the plurality of buckets is available, merging the further bucket into the group to form a further group, determining if the further group satisfies the privacy requirement, and if a determination is made that the further group satisfies the privacy requirement, outputting a new data set comprising the group and the further group.