topic Random PII Anonymizer in SAS Programming

Random PII Anonymizer

tomrvincent — Wed, 01 Aug 2018 11:55:26 GMT

I thought I'd share a technique for anonymizing Personally Identifiable Information data while maintaining field lengths (random x digit number):

Found this macro at https://blogs.sas.com/content/iml/2015/10/05/random-integers-sas.html

%macro RandBetween(min, max);
(&min + floor((1+&max-&min)*rand("uniform")))
%mend;

and so this is what I came up with to randomize PII (claim numbers, medicaid IDs, NPIs)

proc sql; create table foon as
SELECT %RandBetween(10**12, (10**13)-1) as CLCL_ID,
t1.hcas,
t1.hcss,
t1.hcep,
t1.hcaps,
%RandBetween(10**13, (10**14)-1) as MEDICAID_ID,
t1.lbpi,
%RandBetween(10**11, (10**12)-1) as BILL_PROV_NPI,
%RandBetween(10**11, (10**12)-1) as SERV_PROV_NPI,
t1.MIN_of_Line_FROM_DT,
t1.MAX_of_Line_TO_DT,
t1.CLCL_RECD_DT,
t1.dcabtmco,
t1.dcpbtm,
t1.SUM_of_CDML_CHG_AMT,
t1.SUM_of_CDML_PR_PYMT_AMT
FROM WORK.FOO t1;
QUIT;

Just thought I'd pass it on...maybe it'll be of use to others.

Re: Random PII Anonymizer

ChrisNZ — Thu, 26 Jul 2018 23:47:16 GMT

Thank you for this contribution.

To make it more useful, you could change the title to something like:

Here is a method to anonymise Personally Identifiable Information (PII)

This highlights that you are proposing a solution (rather than asking a question), and explains PII, which will not be a term familiar to everyone.

Thanks again 🙂

Re: Random PII Anonymizer

tomrvincent — Mon, 30 Jul 2018 19:17:36 GMT

If only there was an option to post a solution/suggestion instead of just 'ask a question'!

Re: Random PII Anonymizer

ChrisNZ — Mon, 30 Jul 2018 21:35:34 GMT

In the meantime a good title is the best way imho.