New Company Solves Data Privacy Problem; DatAnon's Computational Solutions Protect Anonymity without Distorting Data

8/7/2002

From: Brian Lustig, 202-585-2841, e-mail: lustig@webershandwick.com, or Louise Filkins, 202-585-2205, e-mail: lfilkins@webershandwick.com, both for DatAnon

PITTSBURGH, Pa., Aug. 7 -- Powerful computing technology can now be harnessed to protect private information in publicly released databases, according to DatAnon LLC, whose formation was announced today by its founders.

DatAnon was formed to commercialize technology developed by Latanya Sweeney, Ph.D., director of the Laboratory for International Data Privacy at Carnegie Mellon University and a professor of computer science there. Dr. Sweeney is the leading pioneer in a new area of computer science called "computational disclosure control."

DatAnon's disclosure control technology is able to determine, for each individual record in a database, which data elements make that particular record unique and therefore "identifiable." It then strategically modifies only the elements necessary to make that record anonymous. Modifying the minimum amount of information required to effectively de-identify each record allows detail-rich, meaningful - and therefore highly useful - data to be released, without compromising individual privacy. DatAnon's computational de-identification technology meets the data privacy challenges of private-sector organizations such as health care providers and financial institutions, as well as the government.

"Given the dire predictions that computers would soon eliminate personal privacy," said Dr. Sweeney, "it is gratifying to discover computer solutions that can actually protect privacy. We want to move these solutions out of the university laboratory and into broad practical use as rapidly as possible."

W. Michael Tupman, Deputy Attorney General in the Delaware Department of Justice, responded to the announcement of the company. "Dr. Latanya Sweeney and her company, DatAnon, are an invaluable resource for state and local governments struggling to keep up with the requirements of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), and the criminal history records laws. Rest assured that your data sharing practices are consistent with federal and state law, protect individual privacy rights, and reduce your litigation risk exposure."

Stable and statistically reliable, DatAnon's technology can be embedded in all types of commercial and proprietary database systems. Using innovative artificial intelligence techniques, DatAnon's technology provides scientific guarantees of anonymity while still keeping the data practically useful for research.

According to cofounder Antonia Scarlata, "DatAnon's privacy solutions are the only computer approaches known so far to fulfill the original privacy mandate of HIPAA (the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act)." HIPAA requires that privacy be protected before medical data can be released.

Data privacy products now available from DatAnon include: -- Identifiability Server, a diagnostic tool that analyzes a database and prescribes the most appropriate solution for anonymizing the information in it; -- Data FlyTM, an anonymity tool that meets the privacy requirements of HIPAA, as well as some of the financial privacy requirements of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act; and -- k-SimilarTM, an enhancement of DataFly that enables a researcher to receive more detailed information while still ensuring that each individual is anonymous when compared to other individuals within the data set, and when compared to the population at large.

DatAnon believes that there is a significant need for protecting privacy and guaranteeing anonymity in regard to personal and privileged information that is stored in databases. DatAnon will seek a variety of business opportunities including partnerships and license agreements with database management software manufacturers, medical record and informatics organizations, and database administrators. In addition, DatAnon will provide services needed to ensure that released records protect the anonymity of individuals.

The company's founders include Dr. Sweeney, Ms. Scarlata, and Carnegie Mellon University. A successful entrepreneur, Ms. Scarlata founded the health care management and consulting firm OPTIONS in 1981, growing it to $25 million in revenue, 250 employees, and seven regional offices serving 35 states before managing its 1998 sale to National Healthcare Resources, Inc.

For more information visit the website at http://www.datanon.net.

COMPANY OVERVIEW TECHNOLOGIES ENABLING PRIVACY AND ANONYMITY THE PROBLEM: The growth of the information economy will depend upon technologies that enable privacy and anonymity. Government agencies, financial institutions, medical and pharmaceutical research organizations compile information about customers and patients in databases. These organizations function in a highly regulated environment, and are required by a variety of laws to protect the privacy of their constituents. Information compiled in the databases is valuable for research, analysis of behaviors and management. Before it can be shared and used for such purposes, the information must first be 'de-identified' and 'anonymized' to protect the privacy of individuals.

THE SOLUTION: DatAnon, LLC has the exclusive license to commercialize technologies developed by a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University, Latanya Sweeney, Ph. D. DataFly(tm), and k-Similar(tm) are fully developed computational algorithms which anonymize personal information compiled in databases without suppressing or distorting the data. The development of the above technologies was completed by Dr. Sweeney over the last several years. Her research, completed while a Ph.D. student at MIT, has been funded by research grants and contracts from organizations such as the National Library of Medicine, Department of Defense, DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) and the Delaware Department of Justice, Illinois Department of Health, and the United States Census Bureau. The technologies can be embedded in all types of commercial and proprietary databases. They are stable, statistically reliable, and are currently deployed in a variety of concurrent projects with the Department of Defense and other agencies.

THE BUSINESS STRATEGY: Government agencies, health care institutions, research organizations and financial entities compile information about customers and patients into databases. These entities need to protect the privacy of privileged and confidential information about individuals contained in those databases, especially when releasing data sets for public use and for research. An organization's failure to adequately protect individuals' privacy in this way violates its customers' or patients' trust and erodes their confidence, perhaps irreparably. It may also constitute a violation of one or more federal or state laws.

DatAnon Business Partnerships and Licensing Relationships:

-- Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) of database management software and their customers. Embedded into commercial and proprietary database management software, DatAnon's privacy and anonymity tools enable organizations such as government agencies, health care institutions and research facilities to release data sets that contain rich, robust information while guaranteeing the anonymity of the data and thus protecting individual privacy.

-- Data security companies and organizations. These firms, which need to deliver the additional functionality of privacy and anonymity to their customers, can embed DatAnon technologies into their proprietary privacy software.

-- Research organizations, institutional review boards (IRBs), and privacy committees. DatAnon's privacy and anonymity tools enable researchers to gather detail-rich information, while providing a scientific guarantee that individuals in a data set cannot be re-identified.

DatAnon Anonymity Services and Certification:

For entities that need to certify that individuals cannot be re-identified before releasing data, DatAnon's data analysts will evaluate the limited data set intended for release. If individuals cannot be re-identified from the data, DatAnon will provide the client with a certification of anonymity. If individuals can be re-identified, DatAnon will produce a limited data set file in which the individuals have been anonymized to whatever level the client requires.

THE FOUNDERS: Antonia L. Scarlata, Chief Executive Officer and President, is a successful entrepreneur who founded a health care management and technology firm in 1981. She led the development of a proprietary database management software application that managed over $400M in healthcare dollars across the United States. The firm was sold in 1998, and since that time she has worked in the entrepreneurial and economic development community.

Latanya Sweeney, Ph.D., Chief Technology Officer. In addition to her duties as a professor, Dr. Sweeney serves as the Director of the Laboratory for International Data Privacy at Carnegie Mellon University. She is a nationally know expert in the nascent field of data anonymity and has testified about her work before congressional committees, and has served as an expert witness in a wide range of privacy cases. She is currently working on a bio-terrorism surveillance project in the Washington, D.C. area in conjunction with numerous collaborators including the Department of Defense and Johns Hopkins University.