SUCCESS STORY
From Research Technology to Real-World Application
A privacy-preserving fitness application developed with Microsoft Research to demonstrate homomorphic encryption using Microsoft SEAL.
Client
Microsoft Research
Services
Applied Research · Application Development · Emerging Technology
The Challenge
Microsoft Research was exploring how homomorphic encryption could move beyond research scenarios and into practical software applications.
The technology enables computations to be performed directly on encrypted data, without requiring the underlying information to be decrypted during processing, opening new possibilities for applications that handle sensitive information in the cloud.
The challenge was to apply the technology to a realistic scenario where data privacy mattered, helping assess its practical use while creating a tangible demonstration of how developers could incorporate Microsoft SEAL into an application.
The Solution
Tecknowcore worked with Microsoft Research to design and develop a fitness tracking application as a real-world use case for the technology.
Fitness data provided a particularly relevant scenario: activity applications can generate sensitive personal information such as location, timestamps, and biometric data while relying on cloud services for storage and processing.
The application demonstrated how computations could instead be performed while the underlying data remained encrypted, using Microsoft SEAL to explore a privacy-preserving approach to cloud-based data processing.
Beyond implementing the application itself, the project required translating an advanced research technology into a practical software experience that could demonstrate its potential to developers and technical audiences.
The Impact
The fitness application provided Microsoft Research with a real-world implementation for evaluating and demonstrating how homomorphic encryption could protect sensitive data while still enabling cloud-based analytics and predictions.
The application was demonstrated at Microsoft Build, showing how fitness sensor data could remain encrypted while being processed in the cloud. The project was subsequently released as an open-source sample, helping developers explore the practical use of Microsoft SEAL.
The project also marked the beginning of Tecknowcore's collaboration with Microsoft Research, and the first project delivered under the Tecknowcore name.
Technology & Capabilities
Microsoft SEAL · Homomorphic Encryption · Android · Cloud Computing · Mobile Application Development · Privacy-Preserving Computing · Open Source
