Future research challenges and directions

Abstract

The linking of sensitive databases across organisations is an active area of research in several domains. In this chapter we discuss some of the major open research questions that require further investigations. These include the development of frameworks that allow comparative empirical evaluations, the preparation of benchmark data collections, how to link sensitive databases in a cloud data service, how to properly assess the quality and completeness of linked databases in those situations when only encoded or encrypted records are available, improved theoretically grounded privacy measures, how to best deal with missing values, and novel adversary models. We also discuss how the linking of sensitive databases is challenged in the era of Big data, and the challenges and opportunities that novel types of data, such as biometric and genetic data, can provide.