Decentralized Personal Data Management: A Blockchain-Based Solution

With the blooming of AI and machine-learning -based data-hungry applications and services, managing personal data and ensuring data privacy and security have become critical challenges. Data protection legislation such as the GDPR in the EU/UK and Data Protection Acts (e.g., HIPAA, DPPA, and COPPA) in the USA have been enforced as legal frameworks to regulate activities over personal data. However, such regulations only lay out a framework with abstract principles of how personal data shall be managed without technological solutions, thus, open to interpretation and implementation. Importantly, the verification of the compliance, performed by a supervisory authority, is irregularly conducted. Therefore, it is challenging to certify that a service provider has been continuously adhering to the GDPR and to gain trust from clients.
In the meantime, it is fascinating to witness the recent growth of decentralized applications and services and what Blockchain, Smart Contracts, and advanced cryptography technologies can do. Such state-of-the-art technologies have the potential to solve many problems in conventional data processing and management and would have a remarkable impact on improving data privacy and security as well as creating a trustworthy applications and services ecosystem. This talk focuses on envisioning a design concept and developing a decentralized personal data management platform built on top of a Blockchain (e.g., Ethereum or Hyperledger Fabric) that naturally complies with the data protection legislation.