AI to be used in personal data removal

It will be possible to remove personal data from decisions issued by authorities with the assistance of an automatic anonymisation tool in the coming years, said the Ministry of Justice in a press release.

The objective is to improve the electronic availability of documents, for example for the purposes of decision-making and research.

The anonymisation tool being developed is based on the utilisation of language technology and artificial intelligence. Another application capable of describing the contents of documents will also be created to support the anonymisation process. The applications will be implemented in the Anoppi project led by the Ministry of Justice in 2019–2020.

The project focuses on the productisation of the applications and their introduction into use in the anonymisation of court decisions. The applications implemented in the course of the project are based on open source code, and they can in future be used in a larger scale for other purposes as well.

The applications will considerably improve the availability and usability of documents containing personal data, for example in decision-making and research. The introduction of the applications will enhance the openness and transparency of the public administration.

This week, demos of the applications will be presented in 'AI in Action', a side event of the Council of Europe's conference on artificial intelligence. The conference 'Governing the Game Changer’ will be held in Helsinki on 26–27 February 2019.

The Anoppi project is carried out by the Ministry of Justice together with the Helsinki Centre for Digital Humanities (HELDIG) of the University of Helsinki, Aalto University, and Edita Publishing Ltd.