Privacy annotation from differential analysis of snapshots

A computer program product for preventing divulgation of sensitive data in two snapshots, taken at different times, of one or more same systems in a cloud environment, the computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions executable by a computer to cause the computer to perform a method comprising:

• identifying, by a hardware processor of the computer, a set of files from among a plurality of file pairs, each of the plurality of file pairs being formed from a respective file that includes at least one difference with respect to each of the two snapshots;
• performing, by the hardware processor, a pattern reducing process that removes, from the set of files, any of the files having, as the at least one difference, a predetermined nonsensitive difference between respective executions of a pre-determined system operation;
• performing, by the hardware processor, a commonality reducing process that removes, from the set of files, any of the files having, as the at least one difference, a common difference between different system users;
• and
• annotating, by the hardware processor, data in remaining ones of the files in the set of files as potentially being the sensitive data, subsequent to said pattern reducing and commonality reducing processes;
• prompting the user to provide a user input indicating whether to delete the annotated data;
• and
• deleting the annotated data responsive to the user input.