Intra-model security

This topic addresses:

• How do you "hide" some details of your model from model end-users?
• How do you give some users access to parts of your model, while denying other users to those same parts?

In both cases, we assume the context of a model running in ACP.

Hiding model details

Suppose you don't want model end-users to see certain parts of your model. Maybe this is just to avoid overwhelming them with extra information. Maybe this is because you want to hide a proprietary algorithm or other IP from your client. Or maybe you the model makes use of confidential information.

Hiding definitions

The first technique is to hide one or more definitions. To do this, select the node(s) whose definitions you want to hide, or select a module if you want to hide all definitions in the module, and select Hide Definition(s) on the Object menu while you are developing the model in the Analytica Enterprise or Analytica Optimizer edition. (This feature requires Analytica Enterprise or higher).

You should consider saving a locked copy of your model (from the Save a copy in... option on the file menu), and publish this locked copy so that if anyone downloads your model and loads it into their own copy of Analytica, they won't be able to unhide these definitions.

You should be aware that hiding definitions is not a fool-proof way of protecting confidential information, since it doesn't prevent someone from computing new results from the data.