Privacy by Encrypted Databases

Abstract

There are a few reliable privacy mechanisms for cloud applications. Data usually needs to be decrypted in order to be processed by the cloud service provider. In this paper we explore how an encrypted database can (technically) ensure privacy. We study the use case of a mobile personalized healthcare app. We show that an encrypted database can ensure data protection against a cloud service provider. Furthermore we show that if privacy is considered in application design, higher protection levels can be achieved, although encrypted database are a transparent privacy and security mechanism. © 2014 Springer International Publishing Switzerland.