Data breaches are escalating with an increase in digitization. You may have felt more and more corporations are realizing the significance of privacy preservation. To tackle these privacy problems that were highly prevalent with centralized platforms, new-age agile startups and large organizations are now looking towards deploying blockchain protocols, especially the permissioned blockchain – Hyperledger Fabric node to resolve the problems concerning data preservation.

From time to time, blockchain-based solutions that work on a decentralized peer-to-peer network have proved that transparent computing is possible. Therefore, enterprises can take advantage of permissioned blockchain features to maintain privacy.

However, today we will not discuss the public blockchain but the contrary, the private or permissioned blockchain — such protocols such as the Hyperledger Fabric node deployment can efficiently shield private information because of an inbuilt identity layer or permissioning.

In the blog, we will briefly look at enterprise blockchain and its applications. Along with, several issues in privacy preservation. We will further explore the managed blockchain services and enterprise blockchain solutions for maintaining data privacy.

What is Enterprise Blockchain?

The blockchain has evolved considerably over time. Unlike the public blockchain, these blockchains are permissioned. Henceforth, organizations have control over the information.

The term “enterprise blockchain” conveys that here the information on the ledger is secured. The decentralized feature of the public blockchain is not very suitable for business models. A secured permission channel is much better for an enterprise model when there is so much company and consumer-related information to handle.

Here, the enterprise will have control over the data. The company can block any transaction if law enforcement rules are not followed. Hyperledger, Corda, and Ripple are a few of the popular enterprise blockchain platforms. If you want to know more about enterprise blockchain in detail. Read it here

Blockchain for Enterprises 

Organizations need to protect various corporate strategies, information on intellectual property, email communications and so much more. For example, those organizations that serve other organizations, such as legal and accounting firms. Protecting the information becomes very crucial. Although there is a wide array of companies that can opt for enterprise blockchain, let’s look at some of the major ones: 

Finance

Blockchain-powered FinTech companies find sharing data policy and documentation easier with partners. This gives a reduction in processing time and increases transparency. In this sector, DeFi is becoming mainstream. Here native anonymity approach works better. In native anonymity, the requirement of breaking the privacy will only be if law enforcement requests so.

Airlines

The airline industry can use blockchain to manage data about flights. It will also revolutionize the handling of databases of travelers. Counter-checking the information about the travelers will become easy, and there will be no requirement for third parties. British Airways is one of the examples’ of an airline industry going for blockchain technology integration.

E-Commerce

In E-commerce, digital ledger technology is used for data tracking in everyday operations. Management of the data of employers, customers, and retailers becomes hassle-free. The method is ideal for settling customer disputes with retailers without revealing any private information of both parties involved.

Automated Insurance

We all know that insurance has again so much information to manage. There is medical information that needs to be sensitively handled to avoid any leakage. With permissioned blockchain deployment such as Hyperledger Fabric node, the health information can be monitored in real-time and it will make it effortless for enterprises to issue policies.

Social Media

With so many users getting added every day on social media platforms, it is quite difficult to handle information. There is a huge trove of data lying around on social media. To counter the problem, social media giants can ensure their users’ privacy by implementing private or permissioned blockchain solutions.

Issues in Preservation of Privacy

Organizations responsible for data handling have the burden of managing and securing data. Collecting data has become one way to predict an individual’s behavior. However, this raises concern among the public, with an enterprise’s reputation at stake.

Sensitive personal information, known as personally identifiable information (PII), is one of the ways to track a person’s life. Ledgers are used to store the PII. The information traced can be location, biometric data, security, and phone number, and all of this can explain an individual’s behavior.

Clients, employees, and stakeholders are always under the scanner, and many times their data isn’t in safe hands. Even passwords can be manipulated when information is stored in an unencrypted form. What enterprises often neglect is that a data breach can cost reputation and along with it huge penalties.

Technological Advancements

Collecting data is one way to predict an individual’s behavior to provide customized services. But on the other hand, this has led to cybercrime and increasing consumer concern. In addition, there has been an increment in data creation. One of the reasons for increasing vulnerabilities is the adoption of sync-and-store services and cloud computing.

IoT 

Advanced Technology such as IoT is also a concern. The legal language used in the security policies of IoT is difficult to understand by an average person. Companies should adopt a privacy-in-layers policy. Ultimately, the algorithms need to be fair, transparent, and impartial in preserving privacy.  

Law on Data Privacy 

Regulatory bodies worldwide are formulating laws so that individuals have all the right to understand what data is being collected. To your surprise, about 81% of users are clueless about how their personal data is used.

The European Union passed the General Data Protection Regulation(GDPR) in 2016. Similarly, in the US, there is the California Privacy Rights Act which is similar to the European Union’s regulations.

Blockchain-Enabled Preservation of Privacy

With blockchain, you may think, “How can it be secure because the data can be stored in shared ledgers?” Interestingly, there are layers of privacy. Blockchain developers can allow who can read and write the transactions. In addition, certain security measures and permissions can be updated later as well. The technology’s core is that the data is shared, but a single point of attack will not be enough to breach security.

A robust data network is being created with high-level security. Also, blockchain technology has no middlemen. Thus, all the data is between the consumer and the organization as blockchain technology works on the consensus mechanism. The mechanism is distributed all over the network, helpful in authenticating transactions and preserving data.

Decentralized Identity (DID)

The users can be given anonymous IDs on the blockchain network. Also known as decentralized identity. The individuals will be able to control how their identity is shared. The decentralized identity or the global identity will return data ownership to the organization and its users.

Usage of Hash

Developers can follow not to put all information on the blockchain. The best possible way is to combine all the information and update it on a hash on the blockchain. The hash function saves large amounts of data on a fixed length. By using blockchain as a verifier of data, businesses can save money and time as other parties will not be involved.

Zero-Knowledge Proofs

The enterprise blockchain technology allows you to check the network without checking someone’s work. It enables user privacy by maintaining the integrity of the data. Saving the information on the hash can be replaced by placing it on the zero-knowledge proofs. ZKP does not reveal the details of the transaction. Private coins such as Zcash are big advocates of zero-knowledge proofs.

Future of Data Privacy in Enterprise Blockchain

Processing, collecting, and organizing the data on a public blockchain, involves significant business risks.

On top of that, day-by-day transactions through blockchain are increasing. Sooner or later, we need a decentralized liquid exchange with strict regulations to shield private information. The concept of zero-knowledge proofs and global identity will be helpful in the ethical use of data in enterprise blockchain.

Thus, it paves the way for enterprises to adopt blockchain to control data privacy issues, making it beneficial for businesses and the masses. 

About Zeeve

Zeeve is the leading blockchain infrastructure company, helping web 3.0 startups and enterprises deploy, manage and monitor nodes. We will enhance the blockchain layer making it both secure and private. We work with dynamic businesses and professionals and help with deploying, monitoring, and scaling nodes. We are trusted by Blockchain startups, Enterprises, and Web3 Developers to manage their dApps. Zeeve supports Decentralized Finance (DeFi) space with decentralized storage, trusted nodes, and smart contracts.