Anonymize Geographic Locations — anonymize

Anonymizes geographic locations by removing them or replacing with generic labels. Maintains referential integrity (same locations get the same value).

Usage

anonymize_locations(
  x,
  method = c("remove", "generalize"),
  prefix = "Location",
  seed = NULL,
  use_uuid = TRUE
)

Arguments

x: A character vector of locations to anonymize
method: Character string specifying anonymization method: "remove" (default) removes location information, "generalize" replaces with generic location labels
prefix: For "generalize" method: prefix for generic locations (default: "Location")
seed: An optional seed for reproducible anonymization
use_uuid: Logical, if TRUE uses short UUIDs instead of sequential IDs (default: TRUE). Only applies when method = "generalize".

Value

A character vector of anonymized locations

Examples

locations <- c("New York, NY", "Los Angeles, CA", "Chicago, IL")
anonymize_locations(locations, method = "remove")
#> [1] "[Location Removed]" "[Location Removed]" "[Location Removed]"
anonymize_locations(locations, method = "generalize", seed = 123)
#>        New York, NY     Los Angeles, CA         Chicago, IL 
#> "Location_ggyQKpzW" "Location_hybAy7Aq" "Location_DpYfTU6h" 
anonymize_locations(locations, method = "generalize", 
                    use_uuid = FALSE, seed = 123)  # Use sequential IDs
#>    New York, NY Los Angeles, CA     Chicago, IL 
#>  "Location 125"  "Location 126"  "Location 127"