United States, health data
HIPAA safe harbor identifiers: the 45 CFR 164.514 text
Updated
HIPAA gives two routes to de-identified health information, and the safe harbor route is a list of identifiers to remove.
The removal route
The regulation says that "the following identifiers of the individual or of relatives, employers, or household members of the individual, are removed", and its list begins with names (45 CFR 164.514).
The expert route
The other route is a person with appropriate knowledge of and experience with generally accepted statistical and scientific principles determining that the information is not individually identifiable.
Re-identification codes
A covered entity may assign a code for re-identification, but the text says it does not use or disclose the code for any other purpose, and does not disclose the mechanism for re-identification.