Before this feasibility study, the Sharemind team had successfully performed a number of both commercial and R&D projects for a range of customers. However, we lacked a business focus and a way forward. In this project, we conducted a market study and identified the key markets to focus our work on.
We understood that the key demand drivers are the introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation and signing of the EU-US Privacy Shield agreement. Additionally, Sharemind is an enabler for the European Digital Single Market and global cross-border digital services and data sharing. Currently, no other technology provides privacy-preserving data analysis with the same security guarantees as Sharemind. European Data Protection specialists and legal experts have stated that, with the correct processes, goals of Privacy by Design in Article 25 of the General Data Protection Regulation can be met with Sharemind. Even more, if the aggregation results do not contain personal data, using Sharemind on private inputs means that no personal data is processed in the meaning of the law.
The feasibility study helped us significantly improve business and technology development and confirmed the economic viability of Sharemind. Cybernetica will now scale up its business activities related to Sharemind and thiswill lead to the better availability of privacy technologies for both European and international stakeholders. We see two main impact areas. First, there will be new disruptive business models that were previously impossible due to immature privacy technologies. Companies and governments can extract value from previously unused data. Second, existing services and business models will become more privacy-preserving, reducing cost and improving compliance and avoiding large privacy compromises in all organisations.