IBM unveils new privacy technology

Claiming a technology breakthrough in privacy and security, IBM last week introduced software that allows corporate users to share information with each other and government agencies without having to reveal private details.

The technology, called DB2 Anonymous Resolution, has the potential to address the broad range of security problems involved in handling personal information in markets such as health care, financial services, and national security.

“Everyone needs to share data, but the more it is shared, the higher the chances it will get out of your control. Lots of people with information would like to know when they have two records in common, for instance, but they don’t want to share all their information just to discover that,” said the technology’s inventor, Jeff Jonas, chief scientist of Entity Analytics and a Distinguished IBM Engineer.

The technology is an extension of IBM’s analytics software, which uses irreversible “digital signatures” and other techniques for correlating the data while it remains in an “anonymized” form. This contributes to enhancing privacy but it also prevents data from being observed in its original form.

Offering one example of how the technology works, Jonas said banks who want to market services to their own customers typically turn to a company with large databases such as LexisNexis to obtain more specific information about those customers, such as what magazines they might subscribe to or how many children they have. Banks, however, are often reluctant to disclose their customers’ names.

Jonas said his approach is the first where each party encrypts its own data using advanced correlation and cryptographic data.