Industry Insights

In our blog we provide you with industry insights on privacy, anonymization, analytics and of course information about our solution Aircloak Insights.

Category: About Aircloak



August 27, 2019 by Felix Bauer

Introducing a version-based naming system of Diffix

Building a useful analytics system with strong anonymity is difficult. It is an iterative process: ideas are generated, flaws are discovered, and new ideas emerge in response. Aircloak is dedicated to transparency. We openly publish our anonymization technology and encourage white-hat attacks on our system through our bounty program and free academic licenses. We allow our white-hat attackers to publish … read more

Pillars

February 11, 2019 by Paul Francis

The 4 Pillars of GDPR Compliance Assurance in Data Anonymization

The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) states that anonymous data is not personal data, and therefore does not fall under the purview of GDPR. The GDPR, in Recital 26, defines anonymous as: “…information which does not relate to an identified or identifiable natural person or to personal data rendered anonymous in such a manner that the data subject … read more


September 3, 2018 by Nicolas Sartor

Pecha Kucha or how to explain data anonymization in 4 minutes

Aircloak is winner of the Handelsblatt Diamond Star Digital Banking Award! With so many start-up awards in Germany, there is a mixed feeling – the applications are time-consuming and the outcome is often uncertain – but we did not hesitate when we had the opportunity to apply for the Handelsblatt Diamond Star Digital Banking Award. We firmly believe that data … read more


August 22, 2018 by Felix Bauer

Break my Life’s Work and I’ll Pay You Handsomely

Because expert validation of anonymization approaches is really difficult, Aircloak started a bug-bounty program for its product – the Aircloak Attack Challenge. In the wake of this, a new method of measuring privacy was established and can be used for various functions in the future. Nobody has a clue about Anonymization It’s summer 2017 in Helsinki; some of the brightest … read more


June 21, 2018 by Nicolas Sartor

Discussing evaluation methods of anonymization with CNIL

In May 2018 Paul Francis, Director of the Max Planck Insitute for Software Systems and Co-Founder of Aircloak was invited to the LINC (Laboratoire d’Innovation Numérique de la CNIL) in Paris. As a subunit of the French data protection authority CNIL, the lab’s mission is to reflect, inform and share on emerging trends in digital and data usage. They also … read more


April 27, 2018 by Paul Francis

Report on the vulnerability in Diffix-Birch announced by Imperial College London and CU Louvain

On April 18 researchers from the Imperial College London and CU Louvain published a vulnerability of diffix-birch. Diffix-birch is the anonymization algorithm jointly designed by the Max Planck Institute for Software Systems (MPI-SWS, www.mpi-sws.org) and Aircloak GmbH (www.aircloak.com). The vulnerability was posted on the academic paper archival system arXiv here. A couple hours after the publication, one of the authors … read more