Abstract

This disclosure describes how a governed data custody architecture responds after personal data has been stolen, so that stolen data loses its value and the people affected are made whole. When a person's data is released from custody to an organization that holds it for a declared purpose, such as a merchant, a carrier or a service provider, each holder receives its own copy, identified by a separate data identifier linked to the person's source deposit, to the holder and to the purpose, and marked so that the copy can be recognised wherever it later appears. When a breach is detected or reported, the registry marks every copy released to the breached holder as compromised. Because certified AI systems and certified services refuse data whose identifier is not valid, the compromised copies cannot be used anywhere in the certified network, and any certified service that is presented with one reports it. Agents acting for each person watch for that person's marked copies in leaked collections, and a match starts the rescue automatically. Each affected person is told which holder lost which items, when and through which copy, and receives a rescue record that supports claims. Compensation is paid from the protection fund to which certified holders contribute, and the holder's certification is lowered or lapses until it shows remediation. An organization that holds personal data outside governed custody, whether or not it has been breached, may move that legacy store into a certified custodian, which assigns identifiers, notifies the people concerned, returns their data to their control, and destroys the original store with proof. Taken together, a breach no longer leaves usable data in the attacker's hands for long, and the cost of the breach falls on the holder that lost the data rather than on the people it belonged to.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

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