Secure Anonymized Data Linking via Cryptographic Tokenization
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Solution Overview
Problem
The challenge lies in securely linking and sharing data sets across different computer domains while protecting sensitive data elements, which are often restricted by privacy and security concerns, and ensuring compliance with varying regional regulations, making it difficult to integrate and maintain data sharing across a broad entity base.
Innovation Solution
A method and system for secure linking of anonymized data records, where sensitive data elements are identified and replaced with tokens using cryptographic hash functions, allowing for secure transformation and matching across domains without exposing the sensitive information, enabling secure data sharing and integration.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If sensitive data elements are shared across computer domains, then data depth and usefulness are improved, but privacy and security restrictions are violated
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts sensitive data elements from the original data records and replaces them with tokens. This separation allows the data to be shared across computer domains for increased depth and usefulness while the sensitive information remains protected in its source domain, resolving the contradiction between data sharing and privacy protection.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces tokens as intermediary elements that represent sensitive data elements without containing the actual sensitive information. These tokens enable data linking and sharing across domains while maintaining privacy, as they serve as mediators between the need for data utility and the requirement for sensitive information protection.
2Loss of information
If data sets are linked across different computer domains, then data usefulness is improved, but compliance with varying regional regulations becomes difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies different quality treatments to different parts of the data record. Sensitive data elements are tokenized to meet privacy regulations, while non-sensitive elements remain unchanged to maintain data usefulness. This localized differentiation allows compliance with varying regional regulations while preserving data utility across domains.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the parameter state of sensitive data elements by transforming them into tokens through cryptographic hash functions. This parameter transformation maintains the linking capability (usefulness) while altering the data form to comply with privacy regulations, enabling adaptation to different regulatory environments.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If cryptographic hash functions are applied to sensitive data elements, then security is improved, but data matching complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the tokenization process with the data sharing mechanism. By integrating cryptographic hash function application into the token creation step, the system achieves both security enhancement and simplified matching, as tokens from different domains can be directly compared without additional complex procedures.
Data Source
AI summary
There is provided a computer-implemented method for secure linking of anonymized data among computer domains, comprising: at each computer domain at which a data set including a number of data records is stored: identifying a sensitive data element within a data record; applying a cryptographic hash function to the sensitive data element so as to yield a token; replacing the sensitive data element with the token within the data record to yield an anonymized data record of the data set; and transferring to a server computer the anonymized data record of the data set; and at the server computer: iteratively transforming the tokens of the anonymized data records of each data set to yield a compounded token for each token; and linking the anonymized data records if their compounded tokens match.