Removing PII (dates)

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Hi all,

I am new to working with MRI data - thanks in advance for any help folks can provide!

In preparation for data sharing, we need to remove all personally identifiable information. Files are currently in BIDS format (json + nifti) and have been defaced, but there is still metadata, including “AcquisitionDateTime”, that we need to remove to fully de-identify the data.

What approaches have others used to address this? Are there existing tools we could easily implement?

Thanks,
Erica

2

Hi @en2419, and welcome to neurostars!

It shouldn’t be too hard to update this in a Python script, using the json package.

very minimal example below (haven’t tested, please let me know if it doesn’t work)

from glob import glob
import os
import json

datetime="January 1st, 1300" # Just a fake time that you put in all of your files
bids="/path/to/BIDS/root/" # Specify where BIDS root is
jsons=glob(os.path.join(bids,"sub-*","*","*.json")) # Find all JSONS

for json_path in jsons: # Loop over all jsons
    # Load the jsons
	with open(json_path, 'r') as data_file:
		json_data = json.load(data_file)
    # Update the JSON field (add more fields afterwards you want to change)
	json_data['AcquisitionDateTime'] = datetime
    # Write out the updated JSON
	with open(json_path, 'w') as data_file:
		json.dump(json_data, data_file)

Keep in mind this will overwrite your preexisting data, so try testing and designing with just one subject in its own directory first before looping over everyone!

Best,
Steven

3

Thank you so much, Steven!