Similar to how field-level data type conversion can be performed in any IRI software product, you can also use a string encoding function to identify personally identifiable information (PII) or protected health information (PHI).

The IRI FieldShield Software in the IRI Data Privacy Suite provides easy access to reversible encoding functions that convert ASCII to binary data. Base64 and Hex methods are also supported.

Unlike the strong ones integrated into FieldShield Encryption features Encryption is not a particularly secure method of de-identification. It is not uncrackable and does not require a passphrase or key to reverse. However, for some applications, it is convenient and secure enough. Only the equivalent decoding function provided in FieldShield displays the original source values.

This special dialogue in the IRI Workbench GUI for FieldShield encodes and decodes specific source or target columns: