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Avatar: a scientific article published in Nature Digital Medicine validates Octopize's revolutionary data anonymization method. A giant step forward in the protection of privacy. A gold mine for research and innovation.
After the CNIL, the State and investors, the scientific community is in turn validating Avatar, the software for anonymizing personal data, marketed by the deeptech startup Octopize. A rare enough fact in the current AI craze, Octopize is betting on peer-reviewed scientific publishing, open access and open source in the codes and data sets analyzed. The article reveals the stages of the patient-centered transformation of personal data into synthetic and anonymous data. In collaboration with the Nantes University Hospital, Nantes University (through its private research promotion subsidiary, CAPACITÉS SAS), Inserm and Centrale Nantes, the article demonstrates the impossibility of re-identifying patients and the maintenance of data quality. A giant step forward in the protection of privacy. A gold mine for medical research and innovation. During the Tech for Future competition, on April 6, we were selected to question Mr. Jean-Noël Barrot, Deputy Minister in charge of Digital Transition and Telecommunications about data privacy, our field of expertise, and he shares our vision!
Big (Data) Brother Is Watching You
An inexhaustible source of value for economic players, a rare and precious material for medical research and innovation, the volume of personal data in circulation is growing exponentially. Corollary: respect for our privacy is increasingly in danger. What is Octopize's raison d'être? Solving this paradox. The deeptech startup says it loud and clear: today, there is no longer any reason to risk the re-identification of the people behind the data. Avatar, its software for anonymizing personal data, provides scientific proof.
Avatar software, the choice of transparency
The article detailing the avatar method,” Patient-centric synthetic data generation, no reason to risk re-identification in biomedical data analysis ”, is published by NPJ Digital Medicine, the scientific journal dedicated to medical digital innovation. Published by the group Nature and subject to peer validation, the article is freely accessible online. A desire for transparency dear to Octopize. Indeed, since its inception, the startup has chosen a method that can be explained step-by-step, contrary to black box models that make the risks involved remain opaque.
What is the difference compared to the competition? Avatar software provides proof of anonymity
Configurable, the avatar software provides unique metrics to assess — and prove — the impossibility of re-identification and the statistical quality of the transformed data, both at the scale of the data set and at the patient level.
How? The avatar method is based on a breakthrough innovation: the algorithm is patient-centered. It models the data of each individual and creates avatar data that is sufficiently remote to prevent any re-identification according to the criteria set by the European Data Protection Board (EDPS), but faithful enough to maintain all the statistical value. The synthetic data obtained is therefore perfectly anonymous and maintains the statistical properties.
Patients are no longer at risk. There are no longer any limitations, geographic or temporal, on the sharing and reuse of Avatar data.
Avatar, a revolution in data governance
Avatar data thus unbridles the exploitation of data, at the service of all and with respect for everyone. They value data (sharing, resale, open data), their conservation (unlimited) and their second life (no need for consent because it is no longer personal data). By unleashing streams of quality data to feed machine learning models, avatar data is becoming a gold mine for medical research and innovation, among others.
With this revolutionary software, Octopize is campaigning for a change of paradigm: personal data — a risk factor — must be reserved for strictly personal use. For all other uses, let's use synthetic and anonymous avatar data — a guarantee of security and opportunity for valorization.
Protecting the privacy of individuals before reusing their data is necessary. Proving it is essential. Avatar, THE software for anonymizing personal data.
Press release update
On April 6, 2023, Octopize, winner of the competition Tech For Future, was selected to ask a question to M. Jean-Noël Barrot, Deputy Minister in charge of Digital Transition and Telecommunications.
Octopize question: “The sharing of personal data is a major societal issue, which requires going further to regulate practices. Without trust, there is no data. Without data, there is no innovation or digital economy. What do you think?”
Mr Barrot's reply:
“That is exactly our vision.”
“When you focus on respecting private data, you give the impression of being against innovation: not at all! On the contrary, and the company you represent is one of the best examples.”
“We want to encourage entrepreneurs like you to get up and design solutions that will allow us to reconcile our goals of innovation and privacy.”
“I encourage those who are starting up in the privacy sector, like Octopize, and who make it possible to reconcile our goals of innovation and respect for privacy.”
“We are not going to stop defending privacy because we have to do AI. We're going to do both at the same time and we need tech to do it.”
About Octopize
Octopize
Proven privacy, unlocked data.
The ambition of Octopize, a deeptech startup, is to become the European leader in the anonymization of personal data thanks to its patented software: avatar. Marketed since 2019 in the form of software and a service, the avatar method was successfully assessed by the CNIL in 2020, encouraged by a fundraising of €1.5 million in 2021 and rewarded by the Prime Minister during the I-nov 2022 competition with new funding of €0.5 million. After the law, investors and the State, the scientific community in turn validated our avatar method in 2023, in the journal Nature Digital Medicine. Recognized for several years in the sensitive health sector (CHU, research institutes, Big Pharma, Medtech), Octopize is now accelerating its growth in telecommunications, insurance, automotive and banking.
Article link: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41746-023-00771-5
To find out more : Octopize.io
Contact: Olivier BREILLACQ, founder & director — linkedin.com/in/olivier-breillacq
Press contact : contact@octopize.io
