The aim of this paper is to introduce emerging technologies for the implementation of graph-rewriting-based design automation applications that can be used in collaborative environments. The paper motivates the use of graph-rewriting for design automation and highlights an important issue: preservation of confidentiality. Approaches to the efficient derivation (using design knowledge) and rule induction (learning design knowledge) are discussed. The crucial feature of these approaches for confidentiality-preserving graph-rewriting is that knowledge-bases of contributing organizations do not have to be disclosed.