Data Warehouse Masking Natural Persons Data
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Solution Overview
Problem
The management of natural persons' data within company systems is complex due to conflicting regulations such as GDPR, which requires data protection, while other laws mandate retention of employee records for law enforcement and taxation purposes, leading to challenges in data access and privacy.
Innovation Solution
A method is implemented in a data warehouse to receive queries for reports, process them to identify blocked natural persons' data, and generate a result set with masked values using metadata to indicate whether data is blocked, ensuring compliance with privacy laws by preventing access to blocked data while allowing key figure data to remain accurate.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If natural persons data is deleted to comply with GDPR, then data privacy is improved, but the ability to maintain records for law enforcement and taxation purposes deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments data access rights by implementing different block types (total blocks and partial blocks) that allow selective masking of sensitive fields while preserving other data. This enables compliance with GDPR by masking personal identifiers while retaining aggregated data for statistical and legal purposes.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces metadata as an intermediary layer between the raw data and query results. This metadata layer contains blocking information that enables the system to dynamically mask or unmask data based on regulatory requirements, serving as a mediator between privacy protection and record retention needs.
2Reliability
If all natural persons data is blocked to ensure privacy compliance, then data protection is improved, but the ability to access any useful information deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by implementing partial blocks that mask only specific sensitive fields (such as personal identifiers) while leaving other non-sensitive fields unmasked. This allows different parts of the same dataset to have different levels of protection, enabling both privacy compliance and useful data access.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses partial blocking rather than complete blocking, applying masking only to the extent necessary for privacy protection. This partial action approach maintains data utility for analytical purposes while sufficiently protecting personal information to meet regulatory requirements.
3Measurement precision
If manual data masking is performed for each query, then data accuracy is improved, but processing time and system complexity deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary action by pre-evaluating queries against metadata blocking information before executing full data retrieval. This allows the system to identify and mask blocked fields in advance, ensuring data accuracy while minimizing processing time during actual query execution.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements self-service by enabling the data warehouse system to automatically evaluate queries against metadata and apply masking without requiring manual intervention. This automated approach maintains data accuracy while significantly reducing processing time compared to manual masking methods.
4Ease of operation
If comprehensive metadata tracking is implemented to manage data blocks, then data control is improved, but system complexity and storage requirements deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies universality by designing a metadata structure that serves multiple functions: tracking blocked data, identifying fields requiring masking, storing block type information, and enabling query evaluation. This multi-functional metadata system improves data control while avoiding the need for separate tracking mechanisms for each function.
Data Source
AI summary
In one aspect, a method is described that includes receiving, at a data warehouse, a query associated with a view for a report being presented at a client device user interface; processing, by the data warehouse, the query to identify data responsive to the query; evaluating the identified responsive data to determine whether there is corresponding metadata indicating a portion of the identified responsive data includes blocked natural persons data; when the blocked natural persons data is determined, evaluating the corresponding metadata to determine whether the block is a total block or a partial block; generating, based on the evaluated metadata, a result set including a predetermined value to mask the blocked natural persons data; and providing the generated result set including the predetermined result set to a server handling the view. Related systems, methods, and articles of manufacture are also disclosed.