R3’s Conclave will pave the way for the rise of a new generation of trusted services that can detect fraud, reduce cost, build high-value multi-party analytics and more — where the owners of the data control how it is processed
Lately, there has been a growing concern regarding personal data being collected, stored, and used by third parties without any permission. This is a widely known problem that many understand. What most people don’t understand is the fact that almost every random site one visits does the same thing and the public has no control over the leaked data.
Of course, there are legal solutions -- companies may face charges, like in the case of Facebook legal battles and global condemnation for their abuse of data. Countries all over the world are passing data protection laws, like the EU's GDPR or PDPA in Thailand. But these laws tend to be behind technological advancements, besides, there have been suspension of enforcement of certain chapters whilst organisations still take advantage of abusing personal data.
It makes more sense to handle technological problems with technological solutions. One of such solutions is Confidential Computing. Confidential computing is an emerging technology that truly secures sensitive business data while it is being used — it belongs to a new generation of trusted services that enable data owners to control how their data is processed. This solution makes it possible to run programs on somebody else’s computer, but where the owner of that computer can neither influence nor observe what’s happening.
One such firm providing this service in the region is R3, the leading provider of enterprise technology and services that enable direct, digital collaboration in regulated industries where trust is critical. R3 launched Conclave, a new confidential computing platform that empowers customers to bring about a new era of privacy in data sharing, processing and analysis. Conclave offers best-in-class technology, backed by the rich experience of R3’s developers and business team, featuring a high-level, intuitive API that allows customers to easily write applications on any operating system, as well as code in their language of choice.
According to R3, Conclave will pave the way for the rise of a new generation of trusted services that can detect fraud, reduce cost, build high-value multi-party analytics and more — where the owners of the data control how it is processed. The Conclave platform, harnesses the combined power of confidential computing with Intel Software Guard Extensions (Intel® SGX), and it was designed to be developer and business friendly with a suite of industry-leading features:
- Developer-friendly: A high-level, intuitive API brings the world of trusted execution to regular business developers who can write applications on any operating system (macOS, Linux, Windows)
- Java-based: Enjoy the ease, productivity and safety of coding on JVM + the ability to build tamper-resistant server applications
- Conclave Mail: Safely send private data to secure enclaves for protected data processing
- Integration with Corda Enterprise: Conclave is available as a stand-alone offering and will be integrated with R3’s flagship enterprise blockchain platform soon
The firm also mentioned that other alternatives do exist in the market, they are not able to match the three key functionalities that Conclave offers:
- no party can see the entire dataset
- the ability to prove how data is being processed and protected
- any algorithm can be used to process the data
How does it work?
At its core, confidential computing is a combination of hardware and software that isolates sensitive data in a protected environment while it is being processed. The content within this protected environment can only be accessed with an authorised programming code that is invisible even to the infrastructure provider hosting this secure environment. An example of this is Conclave — R3’s confidential computing platform that enables firms to securely aggregate datasets to solve shared business problems for their customers and across markets, without revealing the actual data to anyone.
As organisations move into the cloud in response to the increasingly distributed nature of work, data privacy in the cloud has become a top of mind agenda not only for businesses, but also for regulators. This is an area that Conclave is uniquely positioned to address. By providing a cryptographically assured environment that enables organisations to collaborate effectively and confidentially, Conclave helps businesses find the perfect balance between adhering to data protection regulation, while achieving data-driven business outcomes.
We had a chance to sit down with Amit Ghosh who is the Chief Information and Services Officer at R3 to ask him some questions about Confidential Computing’s future in Thailand.
Amit Ghosh states that “R3 definitely sees a surge in the demand for Confidential Computing services in Thailand, especially with the recent establishment of the Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA), which guarantees the rights of individuals to control how their personal data is collected, stored and processed. The PDPA provides a huge impetus for businesses to leverage Confidential Computing to securely aggregate and analyse datasets to support data-driven business outcomes while adhering to Thailand’s regulatory requirements.”
Conclave allows firms to securely aggregate their datasets to solve shared business problems for their customers and across markets, without revealing the actual data to anyone. This is especially critical for Thailand’s financial sector as firms work to address the issues of financial fraud. As an example, Conclave enables fraud detection software firms to access private data sets by providing assurances to their customers that their data will not be viewed by the provider or the provider’s other customers, just processed. As a result, these software firms can build new solutions that aggregate data from multiple firms in a trustworthy manner, while reducing false positives and detecting new fraud. Furthermore, Conclave enables firms in Thailand’s finance sector to build private order matching solutions that give assurances that private transaction data will not be viewed or misused. This will give rise to innovative solutions that protect market participants’ data, giving traders and regulators confidence that they are trading in a fair and transparent marketplace.
“As businesses continue to scale and respond to the distributed work environment, confidential computing will become a cornerstone technology that organisations deploy to aggregate and analyse important data in a secure and protected environment. From R3’s point of view, Conclave will play the critical role of enabling businesses to introduce more trusted services that can drive greater business outcomes. This is especially important in the digital climate of today, where businesses expect more than just a privacy policy when it comes to sending private data to third parties — they want to know how exactly their data is being used, without having to give up any control of this data.
R3’s Conclave will open up new business opportunities for firms looking to unlock the value of previously inaccessible data to build high-value multi-party analytics, redefining the way data is protected and used.” added Amit Ghosh.
More information on R3 and Conclave is available here.