Under the Privacy Rule, information can be de-identified in two ways:
1. A formal determination is made by a qualified statistician; or, (2) .By using the Safe Harbor Method, which involves the removal of 18 specified identifiers of the individual, or of relatives, employers or household members of the individual. The specific identifiers are: (i) Names; (ii) All geographic subdivisions smaller than a State, including street address, city, county, precinct, zip code, and their equivalent geocodes, except for the initial three digits of a zip code if, according to the current publicly available data from the Bureau of Census (a) the geographic units formed by combining all zip codes with the same three initial digits contains more than 20,000 people; and (b) the initial three digits of a zip code for all such geographic units containing 20,000 or fewer people is changed to 000; (iii) All elements of dates (except year) for dates directly related to the individual, including birth date, admission date, discharge date, date of death; and all ages over 89 and all elements of dates (including year) indicative of such age, except that such ages and elements may be aggregated into a single category of age 90 or older; (iv) Telephone numbers; (v) Fax numbers; (vi) Electronic mail addresses: (vii) Social security numbers; (viii) Medical record numbers; (ix) Health plan beneficiary numbers; (x) Account numbers; (xi) Certificate/license numbers; (xii) Vehicle identifiers and serial numbers, including license plate numbers; (xiii) Device identifiers and serial numbers; (xiv) Web Universal Resource Locators (URLs); (xv) Internet Protocol (xvi) address numbers; (xvii) Biometric identifiers, including finger and voice prints; (xviii) Full face photographic images and any comparable images; and ® any other unique identifying number, characteristic, or code, except as permitted for re-identification purposes provided certain conditions are met. In addition to the removal of the above-stated identifiers, the covered entity may not have actual knowledge that the remaining information could be used alone or in combination with any other information to identify an individual who is subject of the information. 45 CFR §164.514(b).