June 2022 Summaries

Rina Shainski and Shafi Goldwasser, co-founders of Duality Technologies, discuss the evolution and significance of cryptography in a recent meeting. Goldwasser, a distinguished figure in the field, traces her interest in cryptography back to her graduate studies in the 1980s, where she explored number theory and its application to real-world problems. The conversation highlights the growing importance of cryptography due to advancements in cloud computing and the need for data privacy in a data-driven world. This has led to increased public interest in technologies like homomorphic encryption and multiparty computation, which were once known only to academics. Duality Technologies is at the forefront of enabling secure data collaboration without compromising privacy or market power, aiming to enhance efficiency and utility across various industries. They emphasize the role of intermediaries that facilitate data collaboration without accessing the data itself, aligning with the company's mission to responsibly drive innovation in data analytics.

Jules Polonetsky, CEO of The Future of Privacy Forum (FPF), discusses the organization's role in uniting policymakers, industry leaders, and academics to address privacy challenges posed by emerging technologies. FPF was founded to provide a collaborative space for Chief Privacy Officers (CPOs) and other stakeholders to discuss best practices, engage with regulators, and learn from academia. Polonetsky emphasizes the critical roles of both law and technology in setting guidelines for data usage by companies and governments, and highlights the evolving necessity for CPOs to have thorough technical knowledge to effectively navigate the complexities of data ecosystems. The conversation also touches on the increasing interest from both the private sector and government agencies in adopting privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs) to analyze data securely. Additionally, Polonetsky notes the growing activity of data privacy regulators who are keen to embrace PETs but require clearer guidance to ensure that these technologies meet legal standards. The discussion underscores the importance of international regulatory cooperation to provide clearer frameworks that encourage the adoption of PETs.

Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs) are experiencing rapid growth and adoption, as evidenced by recent PETs Summits in Zurich and Boston where industry professionals, including regulators and data officers, discussed their evolution and application. These technologies are being integrated into various sectors to facilitate data sharing while ensuring privacy and compliance with regulations, enabling collaborations that were previously not possible. Examples include genetic and clinical data integration in healthcare, faster virus outbreak detection through public-private partnerships, targeted advertising without third-party cookies, and fraud reduction in banking. The market is evolving with increased understanding and dialogue among regulators, legislators, and technology vendors, overcoming regulatory barriers and misconceptions, leading to more concrete use cases and solutions. This cooperative environment, exemplified by Duality Technologies' involvement, is fostering an exciting era of privacy-enhanced data collaboration with significant technological and societal implications.

Dr. Alon Kaufman, CEO and Co-founder of Duality Technologies, emphasizes the importance of data collaboration, a concept he has explored throughout his career as a data scientist, to derive valuable insights by combining diverse data sources. He highlights the challenges faced in data sharing due to privacy regulations, which led to the founding of Duality Technologies. The company, co-founded with renowned experts including Rina Shainski, Prof. Shafi Goldwasser, Prof. Vinod Vaikuntanathan, and Dr. Kurt Rohloff, focuses on enabling businesses to utilize sensitive or remote datasets while preserving privacy through privacy enhancing technologies (PETs) like homomorphic encryption. Duality aims to simplify the implementation of PETs in enterprises, facilitating data collaboration while ensuring data protection and compliance with regulations. Kaufman draws parallels with the evolution of data science, suggesting that PETs will soon become a standard component of data-driven enterprises' strategies, as they work towards defining their collaboration needs and choosing appropriate technologies to achieve their business goals.

Cryptography and data science can collaborate to enhance business value by enabling secure data analysis through privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs), as discussed by Duality's Dr. Marcelo Blatt and Ronen Cohen. Duality, a PET company, facilitates privacy-protected collaboration by combining data science with security to handle sensitive datasets without compromising data privacy. A case study in healthcare and life sciences, conducted by Dr. Alexander Gusev, demonstrates how homomorphic encryption can securely link and analyze encrypted datasets from multiple providers without decryption, significantly accelerating research and maintaining patient confidentiality. Homomorphic encryption, based on lattice-based cryptography, allows computations on encrypted data, preserving results as if the data were decrypted, which is particularly advantageous for machine learning applications. By reworking algorithms like decision trees into polynomials, they can efficiently operate on encrypted data, showcasing a shift in viewing encryption as a business enabler rather than merely a security measure. This approach not only enhances privacy but also unlocks data's potential across various industries.

Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs) represent a groundbreaking advancement in cryptography, enabling the protection of information even while it is being processed, unlike traditional encryption methods that only secure data during storage or transmission. These innovations are particularly significant for Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs), who are encouraged to view PETs not just as security tools but as business enablers that unlock the potential of sensitive data for collaborative and analytical purposes. PETs facilitate secure data collaboration across various sectors, such as banking and biotech, without compromising personal or proprietary information. Homomorphic Encryption (HE) is highlighted as a particularly versatile PET, essential for CISOs to consider due to its adaptability across diverse use cases. The document stresses the importance of selecting robust PET implementations that are quantum-proof, utilizing industry-supported and peer-reviewed cryptographic algorithms. As businesses transition to an information-based economy, PETs provide a unique opportunity for CISOs to enhance security while driving business innovation and collaboration.