Insights Gleaned from FPF's Workshop on Privacy-Improving Technologies
In April, a workshop co-hosted by your website and the Mozilla Foundation focused on Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs). The event brought together industry leaders, experts, and academics to discuss practical implementations, privacy preservation, and regulatory compliance, as well as explore new technologies that can balance data utility with privacy requirements.
One of the key technologies showcased was Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE), presented by Mastercard's Chief Privacy Officer, Caroline Louveaux. FHE allows for cross-border fraud detection analysis on encrypted data, thereby supporting both privacy and broader financial regulatory compliance.
Another technology discussed was differential privacy, which enables businesses to generate summaries, trends, and patterns without compromising individual privacy. This technique is particularly useful for complying with legal data deletion mandates, such as those under the GDPR, while still retaining valuable insights from data trends and patterns.
The workshop also covered challenges and opportunities for broadening the adoption of PETs across various industries. The interplay between emerging privacy technologies and data protection laws was a key focus, with participants discussing the benefits and steps for increasing the adoption of these technologies and their intersection with data protection laws.
Robert Pisarczyk, CEO and Co-Founder of Oblivious, presented a privacy-preserving technology implemented in partnership with an insurance company. The event's discussions led to the release of two Issue Briefs by the Future of Privacy Forum (FPF). One focused on Pisarczyk's presentation, detailing the use of differential privacy for end-of-life data, while the other highlighted the potential of FHE in preventing financial fraud across different jurisdictions.
The lack of clear regulatory guidance necessitates reliance on best practices, trust, and adherence to local laws between and across jurisdictions. To advance the development and proof of concept of PETs, synthetic data and regulatory sandboxes are essential.
Moreover, multiple PETs and privacy protections are often beneficial in reducing risk, as no single technology can address every risk or threat. However, there is a need for more incentives for companies to develop and implement PETs, given their high cost and regulatory uncertainty.
The Research Coordination Network for Privacy-Preserving Data Sharing and Analytics, supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy, is working to address these challenges and drive the development and adoption of PETs.
In conclusion, the workshop highlighted the potential of advanced PETs to address tensions between data privacy, utility, and compliance, showcasing real-world corporate applications and legal considerations in the evolving data privacy landscape. The event underscored the importance of continued collaboration, research, and innovation in the field of PETs to meet the growing demands of data privacy and regulatory compliance.
[1] Source: Proceedings from the Privacy Enhancing Technologies Workshop.
- The workshop, co-hosted by your website and the Mozilla Foundation, focused on Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs) and brought together various industry leaders.
- Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE), presented by Mastercard's Chief Privacy Officer, allowed for cross-border fraud detection analysis on encrypted data, balancing privacy and regulatory compliance.
- Differential privacy, discussed at the event, enables businesses to analyze data trends without compromising individual privacy, making it useful for complying with data deletion mandates like the GDPR.
- The workshop covered the challenges and opportunities for adopting PETs across various industries, with a focus on how they intersect with data protection laws.
- Robert Pisarczyk from Oblivious presented a privacy-preserving technology for end-of-life data, leading to the release of Issue Briefs by the Future of Privacy Forum (FPF) on PETs and their use in financial fraud prevention.
- The lack of clear regulatory guidance requires companies to rely on best practices, trust, and adherence to local laws for data privacy and compliance.
- To drive the development of PETs, the Research Coordination Network for Privacy-Preserving Data Sharing and Analytics is working to address challenges and advance their adoption.
- The workshop underscored the importance of continued collaboration, research, and innovation in the field of PETs to meet the growing demands of data privacy and regulatory compliance in the data, finance, banking-and-insurance, and data-and-cloud-computing industries. [1] Source: Proceedings from the Privacy Enhancing Technologies Workshop.
