Activation server for bidirectional limited usages of digital objects

Limiting data usage is an important issue for data sharing. Big data, in particular, has numerous potential values; thus, an arbitrary value can be extracted as an output by processing data with an arbitrary program. If a data provider simply shares his data with users, the users may get information that the data provider does not want to disclose. However, currently, there is no mechanism to limit the usage of such data. In our approach, a data provider and a program provider specify a combination of data and program files bidirectionally to limit their usages. The Activation Server binds the specified data and program, and then the Activation Server processes the data with the program and sends the output to the user specified by the data provider. We assume that a third-party organization has certified the security for the Activation Server. We implemented and evaluated the Activation Server to demonstrate that it enables data sharing by limiting the usage of digital objects.