Legal and Policy Considerations Arising from the Use of Privacy Enhancing Technologies
Conference
65th ISI World Statistics Congress 2025
Format: IPS Abstract - WSC 2025
Keywords: policymaking, privacy
Tuesday 7 October 2 p.m. - 3:40 p.m. (Europe/Amsterdam)
Abstract
The uptake of Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PET) has been slower than expected by many. As cybersecurity concerns are on the rise and Artificial Intelligence solutions are becoming mainstream, developers and providers of PETs are looking at governments to push for an accelerated pace of adopting PETs in practice. Suitable policy measures are in the process of being tested and validated, as several PET supporting programs have been initiated across the world but their results are yet to be seen.
From the EU law perspective, there are requirements in place that demand the strength of protection measures to be proportional to the risks related to processing of data. Although this creates a good policy baseline for considering PETs especially in high risk use cases, paradoxically they have not yet made it even in the high risk space. What may be the causes and how to ensure that PETs earn their rightful place among the IT and data protection security officers' arsenal?
This presentation will provide an overview of publicly known implementations of PETs in practice as well as a list of policy programs supporting the adoption of PETs, followed by examples how current laws already facilitate the uptake of PETs in the EU. Furthermore, the presentation will share insights from legal research projects dealing with testing PETs for practical use cases both in private and public sector in the EU, highlighting potential stumbling blocks on the way to a wider use of PETs in various circumstances. The presentation will conclude with recommendations for policymakers as well as potential early adopters of PETs.