re. Boffinry? Really?

A professor of statistics probably knows nothing but makes it up as he goes along!

He'd be a boffin if he came up with a new statistical approach, product or device (Richard Dimbleby's Swingometer was obviously developed by a proper boffin) related to the data worked with. Simply worrying about the practicalities of enforcing data protection doesn't count.

For statistical purposes: data can indeed be reliably anonymised, although there is actually no need to collect any nature of a distinctly (ie. uniquely) personal nature in any statistical exercise. Not sure if I can think of a foolproof approach in any data management scenario. Abuse of data protections laws is per definition illegal, except if your the US government, but so is theft, murder or grievous bodily harm. So are we going to get a rerun of the story of bullets that can be traced back to their owners or knives that can't be used to stab people with? Or rayguns to be more topical.