Former Reuters Chiefs Back Data Privacy Firm

British-based technology company Privitar, a specialist in big data security, has closed a seed funding round of more than $1m from investors including the two most recent former CEOs of Reuters.

Tom Glocer, currently Director at Merck & Co and Morgan Stanley, said he and fellow former Reuters boss Sir Peter Job 'recognise the significant commercial value of Privitar's innovative technology', and comments: 'Operating all over the globe, Reuters has long been concerned with balancing privacy and access to high value data'.

Other investors include David Gammon, CEO of Rockspring; David Cleevely, founder of Abcam and the Centre for Science and Policy in Cambridge, and First Derivatives CTO Gerard Buggy.

Privitar uses its own patented Privacy Lens technology to conceal identities within big data by 'undetectably merging individual entity data into 'crowds' that preserve data utility but do not compromise data privacy if revealed or leaked'. It also uses proven suppression techniques including attribute level encryption and format-preserving tokenisation. The firm says its ultimate goal is to act as a 'stamp of approval' for companies operating good practice in data security and complying with recognised standards.

According to co-founder and CEO Jason du Preez: 'In a world where everything from cars to credit cards are connected to the Internet, companies can collect and analyse enormous amounts of consumer information to offer more personalised products and improve customer service. But, with the enormous opportunity of Big Data comes even greater responsibility. The reality is that we gain the most from cutting edge analytics if we can safely expose sensitive data. We've found a way to satisfy an individual's need for privacy alongside an organisation's desire to predict and capitalise on behaviours through big data analytics'.

Web site: www.privitar.com .