Amazon Privacy Patent Highlights ‘Data Repatriation’ Movement
A cloud privacy patent from Amazon highlights the growing movement toward data repatriation, and the tricky situation it presents for cloud…

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Amazon wants to keep private data private.
The company filed a patent application for “isolation techniques at execution platforms used for sensitive data analysis.” Amazon’s tech aims to silo private data used in application development, such as building AI, in order to protect it while still allowing developers to build with it and third-party applications to use it.
“Many applications may involve analysis and processing of sensitive data sets of the clients, and preventing the misuse or misappropriation of such data may represent a non-trivial requirement,” Amazon said in the filing. This also applies to “protecting … application code (e.g., from being stolen or copied.)”
To address this, Amazon’s tech separates data into two different environments: The first handles all of the computing tasks themselves, and the second handles data flow and input.
The second environment acts as a “secure intermediary” for the data that goes between it and the first environment, as it is configured to meet “client-specified isolation requirements” for how sensitive data is accessed and used, and can only be accessed by specific users. It’s like a locked supply room, for which only a few people have a key.
Additionally, the first environment “may be ‘zeroed out’ or scrubbed after the application’s work is completed” for an additional layer of security.
This separation allows third-party developers to leverage the resources of a large cloud computing network, such as Amazon Web Services, without having to worry that their data, such as customer or personal information, is at risk or being breached or stolen.
With the growing pace of AI adoption, data security is more important than ever, especially to larger enterprises, said Trevor Morgan, senior vice president of operations at OpenDrives. Security measures are a primary concern and “real differentiator” when picking a cloud environment for those that have to worry more about regulatory scrutiny and compliance, he said.
But across the board, many are questioning whether or not they need to rely on cloud services as much as they do — or if they even need them at all, said Morgan. It’s a movement called “data repatriation,” he said, with the goal of keeping as much of your own data in your own hands as possible.
“It speaks to this movement of people questioning, ‘Do I really want my most private IP sitting out there?’” said Morgan.
Of course, people looking to claw their data back could make AWS nervous, said Morgan, leading to a decreased reliance on cloud services. This patent may be a response to that growing movement, he said: It seemingly aims to showcase that tenants of cloud environments like the ever-popular AWS can trust that their data and intellectual property won’t be misappropriated.
“I think it is their insurance policy against the growing movement of data repatriation,” said Morgan. “To me, this just seemed like [Amazon] getting out in front of it.”
And even those that aren’t looking to pull out of cloud environments entirely are still trying to figure out a balance or the “perfect hybrid,” he said. Striking that balance is different for every enterprise. “There’s a time and place for both, and even the large companies are trying to figure out what that is,” Morgan said.