COMMENTARY

In 2024, early growth startups found capital hard to come by, yet venture capitalists couldn’t help but invest in emerging data and AI security. Solutions tackling data-in-motion and application data flows were a heavy focus. And there was a mad scramble to solve deepfakes and disinformation.

The Year of Deepfake Awareness

It was the year of deepfake awareness. Global governments were on high alert during election time, and even Wiz was touched by a deepfake attack that used his voice. Startups working on fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) appear in competitions annually, touting this Holy Grail of AI privacy. It’s a tech that produces an intermediate but still AI-usable encryption state. FHE’s ciphertext remains usable because it maintains entity relationships, and models can use it during both training and inference time to deliver insights without seeing secrets.

The Limitations of FHE

Unfortunately, FHE is too computationally expensive and bloated for broad usage. The lack of partial word searching is another notable limitation. That’s why we’re seeing a privacy trend that delivers FHE as only one approach within a wider blend of encryption and token replacement.

A Blended Approach to Privacy

Startup Skyflow deploys polymorphic technology using FHE when it makes sense, along with lighter forms of encryption and tokenization. This enables handling partial searches, examining the last four digits of IDs, and being performative on devices. It’s a blended approach similar to Apple’s end-to-end encryption across devices and the cloud.

A Community of Innovation

It’s not hyperbole to say these are times of unprecedented change. Here one should note the innovative mindset and attentiveness of startup culture. It makes for a community that all can leverage to understand the world and guard against its dangers.