Data Privacy Pipeline Configuration with Placeholder Computations

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing data sharing practices face challenges in facilitating collaborative intelligence development while ensuring data privacy and controlling access, due to concerns over data confidentiality, regulatory restrictions, and the labor-intensive nature of data observation and analysis.

Innovation Solution

A graphical user interface is provided to enable tenants to specify parameters for a contractual agreement to share and access data, allowing for the construction and configuration of a data privacy pipeline that includes placeholder elements and parameterized access control, enabling multi-party contributions and deployment in a data trustee environment.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Loss of information

If data is shared to bridge gaps in datasets and generate collaborative intelligence, then the quality and completeness of analytical insights improve, but data privacy concerns and regulatory compliance risks worsen

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvecompleteness of datasetsVSAvoiddata privacy concerns

Core Design Contradiction:

Loss of informationVSObject-affected harmful factors

Solution Approach 1:

A data trustee environment is introduced as an intermediary between data owners and data consumers. The trustee holds and manages data according to contractual agreements, enabling collaborative intelligence generation without direct data sharing between parties. This mediator approach allows datasets to be combined for analytical purposes while maintaining privacy controls and regulatory compliance through the trustee's oversight.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

Solution Approach 2:

The system segments data access rights and contractual parameters into discrete, configurable components. Different parties can contribute specific datasets with defined access permissions, usage restrictions, and compliance requirements. This segmentation allows each data contributor to maintain control over their data while enabling collaborative analysis through the trustee environment.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

2Productivity

If direct data sharing is implemented to enable collaborative intelligence, then the speed of insight generation improves, but control over data access and usage worsens

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvespeed of insight generationVSAvoidcontrol over data access

Core Design Contradiction:

ProductivityVSEase of operation

Solution Approach 1:

The data trustee acts as a mediator that automates access control enforcement. Pre-configured contractual parameters and access policies are embedded in the trustee environment, enabling rapid data sharing and collaborative analysis while automatically maintaining control over data usage. This eliminates the need for manual access management while preserving oversight capabilities.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

3Reliability

If manual data observation and analysis processes are used, then data accuracy and reliability improve, but the time and labor required worsen

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvedata accuracyVSAvoidtime for data observation and analysis

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

Manual data observation and analysis processes are replaced with automated computational systems running within the data trustee environment. Algorithms and computational methods process datasets to generate collaborative intelligence, maintaining accuracy through systematic analysis while dramatically reducing the time and labor required compared to manual processes.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #28Mechanics substitution (Replace mechanical system)

Data Source

PatentUS12530486B2Specifying a new computational step of a data pipeline

Publication Date: 2026.01.20 MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING LLC

AI summary

Embodiments of the present disclosure are directed to techniques for constructing and configuring a data privacy pipeline to generate collaborative data in a data trustee environment. An interface of the trustee environment can serve as a sandbox for parties to generate, contribute to, or otherwise configure a data privacy pipeline by selecting, composing, and arranging any number of input datasets, computational steps, and contract outputs. (e.g., output datasets, permissible named queries on collaborative data). The interface may allow a contributing party to use one or more unspecified “placeholder” elements, such as placeholder datasets or placeholder computations, as building blocks in a pipeline under development. Parameterized access control may authorize designated participants to access, view, and/or contribute to designated portions of a contact or pipeline. Authorized participants may indicate their approval, and the pipeline may be deployed in the data trustee environment pursuant to the agreed upon parameters.