Ant Group Tops 2022 Global Privacy Computing Patents List

Intellectual property research institution IPRdaily and Chinese patent database provider incoPat on Wednesday jointly released the “2022 Global Privacy Computing Patents List.”

The document shows that the top 10 enterprises are all from China and the U.S., with seven from the former and three from the latter. Alibaba‘s Ant Group topped the list with 1,152 patents, ranking first for the second consecutive year.

According to the list, as of March 8, 2022, there are eight enterprises in the world with more than 200 privacy computing patents. The second to 10th places are Ping An Insurance (423), Microsoft (374), Alibaba Group Holding Limited (313), IBM (252), Huawei (206), State Grid Corporation of China (206), WeBank (204), Intel (180) and Samsung (154).

Privacy technologies involved in this list include cryptography, AI, trusted hardware, differential privacy and secure multi-party computation. These technologies have formed privacy computing, which has caused heated discussion throughout the past two years. The privacy computing technology is intended to realize the safe sharing of data from different sources, and to exchange the value behind the data when that of multiple parties is invisible.

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In addition, data security and personal privacy protection have attracted much attention of late. In March, 2021, Chinese authorities issued a document to stipulate the necessary personal information scope of common mobile internet apps, making it clear that app operators should not refuse the use of basic app functions when users do not agree to them collecting excessive personal information. This regulation came into force on May 1, 2021.