On February 23, sponsored by Open Islands and jointly organized by Baidu AI Cloud and SIG for data security under Open Islands, the Seminar on Promoting the Construction of Data Element Market and the Launch Meeting of Open Islands SIG for Data Security were successfully held in Beijing. Focusing on key issues such as the interpretation of basic systems regarding data elements such as the “Twenty Data Measures”, the attendees shared ideas and suggestions for the high-quality development of a digital economy driven by data element circulation.

The seminar on promoting the construction of the data element market consists of three parts, namely top-level design, market construction and frontier technology.

For top-level design, as the first national policy dedicated to building basic systems for data, the “Twenty Data Measures” has opened a new chapter for the improvement and innovation of basic systems devoted to data elements.

In terms of market construction, experts present mentioned that data transactions play an important role in releasing the core value of data elements and helping to build an industrial ecosystem of data economy with data as the core during the whole process of market-oriented data circulation. In this process, data transactions can not only enable the incubation of new industries but also facilitate the upgrading of digital industrialization, thus empowering the sustainable growth of the industrial ecosystem of the digital economy. In addition, data transaction and circulation will also facilitate the data recorded as a corporate asset on the balance sheet, release data productivity, and help enterprises improve their overall decision-making ability and operation efficiency.

Regarding frontier technology, a consensus was reached at the meeting that the advancement of digital technology is an important driver for the high-quality development of the data element market. Privacy computing, one of the key technologies for the data element circulation ecosystem, is considered to be a technically optimal solution to the safe circulation of data. Driven by market demand and relevant policies and regulations, privacy computing is also upgrading itself in terms of applicability, performance and interconnectivity at a faster space. The dramatic differences in compatibility generated in the early stage of the technical ecosystem in various application scenarios also urge ecological players to actively explore the interconnectivity of platforms and establish common standards, in an attempt to enable users to utilize privacy computing in a more cost-effective and efficient manner and ensure the safe circulation of the data value in an open-source way.

The construction of the data element market should be underpinned by privacy computing for security concerns, and the long-term goal of the digital economy, digital society, digital government and digital ecosystem will be realized in stages. The development of the data element open platform relies on three core ecosystems. According to Han Zuli, Deputy General Manager responsible for data security at Baidu Security:

1) The open-source technical ecosystem facilitates the formulation and improvement of state-level industry standard systems and enables the operation and use of data elements in a safe and controllable manner under the guidance of relevant regulations. Being “controllable” means striking a balance between security and performance, as well as avoiding the technology lock-in caused by the incompatibility of vendor platform frameworks;

2) The data ecosystem integrating circulation lays the groundwork for digitization on a larger scale and with better mobility. Even the integration of a small amount of third-party data can remarkably improve the data effect of the product, which is especially important for the local open platforms dedicated to data elements.

3) The applicable business ecosystem can help to explore a wide range of application scenarios to boost the investment confidence of platform builders. Data integration has long served cloud computing in various areas. With the progress of China’s digital transformation, numerous industries continuously promote the development of data elements. Baidu Security also persists in empowering customers with its technical ecosystem, business ecosystem and digital ecosystem in the fields of risk control and social governance.

Only by further improving the three ecosystems, the basic system builders, technology providers and scenario users can form a cooperation model with positive mobility. Take the "Privacy Computing Collaborative Plan" as an example. The plan aims to act as a bridge for the “isolated platforms” of the industry. Jointly initiated by five organizations including the Federated AI Technology Enabler (FATE), Open Islands and Baidu, the plan recently shared the top-level federated learning framework in an open-source way. In January 2023, it was officially granted the Apache 2.0 license. With its codes managed on GitHub, the HIGHFLIP adapter code was released in the FATE community the next month. All sides make concerted efforts to build the three ecosystems of privacy computing and jointly promote the development of technology and application.

Data, as a new production element, is vital to enterprises in pursuing digital and intelligent transformation. In this process, Baidu AI Cloud supports enterprises’ endeavor towards digital transformation based on “cloud computing”, accelerates industrial intelligent upgrading with “AI as the engine”, adopts the integration of cloud and intelligence as a new strategy to “empower numerous industries”, and promote the high-quality development of the real economy. Currently, local data exchanges have reaped fruitful achievements in exploring the structural management of data property rights and the construction of market-oriented systems for data elements. An era of high-quality value circulation of data elements will arrive soon. Relying on the technical research and practical experience since 2018, the privacy computing platform under Baidu Dianshi has created a data security and privacy protection solution covering the full life cycle of data, which can efficiently empower privacy protection and data security with compliance under the support of AI and privacy computing.