A Survey on Current Trends and Recent Advances in Text Anonymization

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Deußer, Tobias, Sparrenberg, Lorenz, Berger, Armin, Hahnbück, Max, Bauckhage, Christian, Sifa, Rafet
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Deußer, Tobias
Sparrenberg, Lorenz
Berger, Armin
Hahnbück, Max
Bauckhage, Christian
Sifa, Rafet
author_facet Deußer, Tobias
Sparrenberg, Lorenz
Berger, Armin
Hahnbück, Max
Bauckhage, Christian
Sifa, Rafet
contents The proliferation of textual data containing sensitive personal information across various domains requires robust anonymization techniques to protect privacy and comply with regulations, while preserving data usability for diverse and crucial downstream tasks. This survey provides a comprehensive overview of current trends and recent advances in text anonymization techniques. We begin by discussing foundational approaches, primarily centered on Named Entity Recognition, before examining the transformative impact of Large Language Models, detailing their dual role as sophisticated anonymizers and potent de-anonymization threats. The survey further explores domain-specific challenges and tailored solutions in critical sectors such as healthcare, law, finance, and education. We investigate advanced methodologies incorporating formal privacy models and risk-aware frameworks, and address the specialized subfield of authorship anonymization. Additionally, we review evaluation frameworks, comprehensive metrics, benchmarks, and practical toolkits for real-world deployment of anonymization solutions. This review consolidates current knowledge, identifies emerging trends and persistent challenges, including the evolving privacy-utility trade-off, the need to address quasi-identifiers, and the implications of LLM capabilities, and aims to guide future research directions for both academics and practitioners in this field.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2508_21587
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A Survey on Current Trends and Recent Advances in Text Anonymization
Deußer, Tobias
Sparrenberg, Lorenz
Berger, Armin
Hahnbück, Max
Bauckhage, Christian
Sifa, Rafet
Computation and Language
Artificial Intelligence
The proliferation of textual data containing sensitive personal information across various domains requires robust anonymization techniques to protect privacy and comply with regulations, while preserving data usability for diverse and crucial downstream tasks. This survey provides a comprehensive overview of current trends and recent advances in text anonymization techniques. We begin by discussing foundational approaches, primarily centered on Named Entity Recognition, before examining the transformative impact of Large Language Models, detailing their dual role as sophisticated anonymizers and potent de-anonymization threats. The survey further explores domain-specific challenges and tailored solutions in critical sectors such as healthcare, law, finance, and education. We investigate advanced methodologies incorporating formal privacy models and risk-aware frameworks, and address the specialized subfield of authorship anonymization. Additionally, we review evaluation frameworks, comprehensive metrics, benchmarks, and practical toolkits for real-world deployment of anonymization solutions. This review consolidates current knowledge, identifies emerging trends and persistent challenges, including the evolving privacy-utility trade-off, the need to address quasi-identifiers, and the implications of LLM capabilities, and aims to guide future research directions for both academics and practitioners in this field.
title A Survey on Current Trends and Recent Advances in Text Anonymization
topic Computation and Language
Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.21587