What type of obfuscation option should Carol select to refer to data without exposing it?

Tokenization is the appropriate choice for referencing data while prioritizing privacy and security. Tokenization involves replacing sensitive information with unique identification symbols or tokens that retain essential information without compromising the original data's security. These tokens can be used for transactions or processing while keeping the actual data secure and stored separately, thus preventing exposure of the sensitive data during use.

This method is particularly valuable in environments where regulation and compliance necessitate protecting personal or sensitive information. For example, in payment processing, payment card information may be tokenized to allow for transaction processing without ever exposing the actual credit card numbers.

In contrast, masking refers to partially obscuring data to hide sensitive information, but it still leaves some level of visibility and may not provide the same level of security as tokenization. Encryption secures data by transforming it into a scrambled format, requiring a key for decryption, making it less practical if you want to reference or process data without revealing it. Hashing generates a fixed-size string from input data, typically used for data integrity checks, but is one-way and does not allow referencing the original data. Tokenization stands out as the best method for maintaining usability while protecting sensitive information.