i2CAT will develop a platform for users’ consent management to guarantee data-sharing privacy

The i2CAT Foundation participates in dGUARD (Privacy-preserving data-sharing platform), a research project funded by Horizon Europe’s initiative TrustChain in its second open call on “User Privacy and Data Governance”.

For nine months, i2CAT will join forces with BLOOCK and beHIT to provide a platform that enables the management of user consent by improving privacy-preserving data sharing among parties (based on SSI, ZKP, and proxy re-encryption) to guarantee the visibility and verifiability of all stakeholders’ interactions.

The main goals of the new platform are:

• Ensure information anonymity and accuracy.
• Guarantee control over access to personal information, even when a third party is responsible for storing it.
• Improve data-sharing traceability and transparency.
• Support digital sovereignty data flows and leverage SSI principles to foster trustworthy digital identification and interactions.
• Allow users to encrypt data to prevent data controller fraud reliably.
• Align incentives while increasing cybersecurity to improve information security.

“From i2CAT, we will contribute to this project by developing Specific zero-knowledge proof (ZKP) to preserve privacy by attending to the specific needs of organisations in authentication and verification processes. We’ll also provide privacy-preserving and integrity of the data storage based on proxy-re-encryption cryptography”, explains Ignasi Oliva, Blockchain innovation manager at i2CAT.

Within dGUARD, researchers will develop a pilot on Healthcare Data Sharing consisting of a Real-Live Platform application to securely share dermatology data for federated learning for early melanoma detection. The pilot will be led by beHIT and involve 30 clinics, 100 patients, and 20 private practitioners. It aims to improve control over data access and guarantee patients’ anonymity and privacy by offering traceability and transparency of data-sharing processes.