Privacy Preserving Data Querying via Tokenized Intermediary
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing database querying methods compromise privacy by requiring the data owner to reveal their data or the requester to learn the content of the query, violating privacy terms and organizational goals.
Innovation Solution
A method and system that uses tokenized query terms, a tokenizing authority, and a tokenized data holder to compare query terms with a database while preserving privacy, employing blinding functions and cryptographic techniques to ensure that only the requester learns the query result and the data owner remains unaware of the request.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If the data owner publishes the database to a shared location or sends the entire database to the requester, then the requester can run a query against the data store, but the data owner loses control over data privacy and the requester may violate privacy terms
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a trusted third-party server as an intermediary that holds the encrypted database and facilitates queries without either party obtaining the other's sensitive information. The server acts as a mediator that can decrypt and compare data only when both parties provide their cryptographic keys, thus enabling query execution while preserving data privacy.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transforms the database into encrypted form using cryptographic algorithms, changing the state of the data from plaintext to ciphertext. This parameter change allows the database to be stored and queried in an encrypted state, maintaining data privacy while still enabling search functionality through cryptographic operations.
2Loss of information
If the data owner keeps the database private, then data privacy is maintained, but the requester cannot perform queries without receiving the entire database
Solution Approach 1:
The trusted third-party server serves as an intermediary that enables query execution on encrypted data without requiring the data owner to share the plaintext database. The server can perform cryptographic comparisons and return query results while the database remains encrypted and private to the data owner.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces traditional mechanical query execution (which requires plaintext access) with cryptographic operations. Instead of physically accessing and searching plaintext data, the system uses encrypted comparisons and cryptographic key exchanges to achieve query functionality while maintaining data privacy.
3Ease of operation
If the requester sends the query in plaintext, then the data owner can process the query, but the data owner learns the content of the request violating requester privacy
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transforms the query from plaintext to encrypted form using cryptographic algorithms. The encrypted query can be processed by the trusted third-party server through cryptographic operations, allowing query execution while preserving the privacy of the query content from both the data owner and the server.
Solution Approach 2:
The trusted third-party server acts as an intermediary that receives and processes encrypted queries without learning their plaintext content. The server facilitates query execution through cryptographic operations and returns results without either party obtaining sensitive information about the other's data or queries.
4Adaptability or versatility
If related data is transmitted to the requester when a match is found, then the data owner provides additional value, but the data owner may learn what information was requested
Solution Approach 1:
The trusted third-party server acts as an intermediary that transmits related data to the requester without the data owner learning what specific information was requested. The server can provide additional relevant data from the encrypted database while maintaining the privacy of the query through cryptographic protections.
Data Source
AI summary
A method, system, and computer-readable memory containing instructions include employing a tokenizing authority to obtain a tokenized query term that represents a query term, using the tokenized query term to perform a lookup against a tokenized term database, determining whether the tokenized query term exists in the database. The method, system, and computer-readable memory may further include returning an encryption or decryption key corresponding to an encrypted record of information associated with the query term and corresponding to the tokenized query term.