Excepting Jersey Shore participants, people generally value privacy and it's a bigger issue when so much data is stored online. Ethical data controllers will keep it encrypted, but much like leaving food in a fridge, you have to take it out if you wanna use it, which is when it's most at risk. A team from MIT , thinks it's found a solution: a database that allows you to ask it questions without taking it out of the fridge... wait, what? CryptDB works by turning data into "homomorphic" information: strings of numbers, which you can then calculate against one another to get the answers you require. The frankensoftware is comprised of other encryption services, layered like an onion -- but capable of switching between processes instantly. The project was funded by Google and Citigroup and has been so successful that DARPA might be rolling some tanks up Massachusetts Avenue to offer the team a $20 million bounty. Head on down to our source link to read the paper that's so complex it made our eyes go cross-eyed.