Privacy Breaches in Asylum Application Spatiotemporal Data

Privacy Breaches in Asylum Application Spatiotemporal Data | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Privacy Breaches in Asylum Application Spatiotemporal Data Panagiota Katsikouli, Maria Astefanoaei, Tijs Slaats This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-5366286/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract During asylum seeking procedures, refugees are required to provide significant amounts of private information. When asylum application records are summarised and made publicly available or shared almost as-is for research purposes, only names are typically anonymized. It is well understood, however, that mobility patterns can easily single out individuals; only a few spatiotemporal points are needed, even in large datasets. In this paper we show that the re-identification effect from locations mentioned in summarized or detailed asylum application records is exacerbated, due to the unique migration patterns of refugees. Indeed, we show that it is possible to confidently single-out at least half of the refugees in our datasets (with more than 11000 and 7000 records) with only high-level information, such as 4 exact locations or 6 countries they traveled to. In light of these results, we advocate that mobility data-at small and large scales-should be treated as private and that drastic actions should be taken for protecting the privacy of sensitive population groups, such as asylum seekers. Physical sciences/Engineering Physical sciences/Mathematics and computing data privacy spatiotemporal data mobility data asylum applications Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-5366286","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":385069558,"identity":"eeef2d25-6b79-4b61-891e-cb1c3eea7793","order_by":0,"name":"Panagiota Katsikouli","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAAnUlEQVRIiWNgGAWjYFACNgaGD2wSQEYaCVoYZ5CshZmHjYEELebsxxI/25RZ2DOwpyUQp8WyJ+2wdM45icQGnmcHiNNicCC9QTq3TSKBQSK9gUgt5583/7Zsk7AnQcuNtGPSjG0SjA0SaUQ6zHLGszTLHqBf2nieJRCnxZw/zfjGj7I6e372NAMiHQZjsBGnHlnLKBgFo2AUjAKcAABYWybSdOXhuQAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==","orcid":"","institution":"University of Copenhagen","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Panagiota","middleName":"","lastName":"Katsikouli","suffix":""},{"id":385069565,"identity":"a5665b34-963a-40d7-a8fa-471800470d13","order_by":1,"name":"Maria Astefanoaei","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"IT University of Copenhagen","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Maria","middleName":"","lastName":"Astefanoaei","suffix":""},{"id":385069566,"identity":"07825204-8571-421c-85d3-1e960e37165c","order_by":2,"name":"Tijs Slaats","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"University of Copenhagen","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Tijs","middleName":"","lastName":"Slaats","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2024-10-31 09:08:43","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-5366286/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-5366286/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":91165323,"identity":"91452de2-283b-4474-ac5f-e6e48848f77c","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-09-12 10:16:36","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":650845,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"PrivacyImmigrantData.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-5366286/v1_covered_979adba0-b08e-4b23-831b-392d8cc7950a.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"Privacy Breaches in Asylum Application Spatiotemporal Data","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"data privacy, spatiotemporal data, mobility data, asylum applications","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-5366286/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-5366286/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"During asylum seeking procedures, refugees are required to provide significant amounts of private information. When asylum application records are summarised and made publicly available or shared almost as-is for research purposes, only names are typically anonymized. It is well understood, however, that mobility patterns can easily single out individuals; only a few spatiotemporal points are needed, even in large datasets. In this paper we show that the re-identification effect from locations mentioned in summarized or detailed asylum application records is exacerbated, due to the unique migration patterns of refugees. Indeed, we show that it is possible to confidently single-out at least half of the refugees in our datasets (with more than 11000 and 7000 records) with only high-level information, such as 4 exact locations or 6 countries they traveled to. In light of these results, we advocate that mobility data-at small and large scales-should be treated as private and that drastic actions should be taken for protecting the privacy of sensitive population groups, such as asylum seekers.","manuscriptTitle":"Privacy Breaches in Asylum Application Spatiotemporal Data","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2024-12-12 03:22:40","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-5366286/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"00da1d10-a2f0-4682-a9bd-180b751e9314","owner":[],"postedDate":"December 12th, 2024","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[{"id":41016861,"name":"Physical sciences/Engineering"},{"id":41016862,"name":"Physical sciences/Mathematics and computing"}],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2025-09-12T10:08:24+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2024-12-12 03:22:40","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-5366286","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-5366286","identity":"rs-5366286","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"_2-kVJe1T_tPrBINL-cwx","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}