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I wonder if this could be used to write business apps where you want to work with private information but not actually have access to the info? I know many pl

I wonder if this could be used to write business apps where you want to work with private information but not actually have access to the info? I know many places have huge databases with personal info, like name, address, ssn etc. What if that info could be worked with in an encrypted manner. Like writing an app to sum up invoices without actually having access to the unencrypted data. If this discovery allows this type of thing I think it will be huge.

sweis 17y ago
Yes, there are many constructions for computing over private data that use homomorphic encryption. For example, Paillier's cryptosystem, which supports addition of ciphertexts, has been a building block in many voting protocols. You can also do things like with homomorphic encryption like private set intersections -- meaning that two people could see what's in the intersection of their private sets without revealing anything outside the intersection. Gentry's work is still a long way away from being practical, but is an exciting theoretical result nonetheless.