The modern enterprise will need to deal with customer data in some way. It was proven that only those who embrace technology will survive in the future, as demonstrated by the COVID-19 epidemic. Although technologies like the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence offer undeniable advantages, there are also complications.
Managing your customers’ or site visitors’ data is a lot like having intimate access to their homes. Businesses that fail to prioritise data security and privacy in their early stages of business building may find themselves in a difficult spot. Privacy-Enhancing Tools (PET), are becoming more important.
This guide will discuss privacy-enhanced tech and what your company can gain from them.
What is Privacy-Enhancing Technology?
Privacy-enhancing technology or PET is designed to protect data from being leaked while maintaining privacy and usability. Some PETs even prevent bad actors from identifying to whom the collected data belongs – if a leak were to occur, the data would be virtually useless to cybercriminals.
By using cryptographic protection, other PETs can prevent costly data breaches. Remote auditing can be used to monitor data processing and make sure it is being done for the correct purposes. It reduces data breaches and potential leakage.
Although your company might have all of the data necessary and be able to access it in any way you want, building software-based and online services that respect privacy by design can prove difficult. PET will help you establish privacy-honoring and secure services to prevent catastrophic data leaks.
There are many types of privacy enhancement technologies
In truth, the term “privacy-enhancing technology” is a bit vague. The term “privacy-enhancing technology” refers only to technologies that provide the fundamental elements of data security. It can be used to protect personal information and increase data security. There are many types of PET:
Data Masking
One of the greatest threats to privacy and data security is traffic analysis. Bad actors shouldn’t be able monitor your activities online footprint Communications. This can be prevented by using a trusted VPN provider that encrypts your communications when you connect to public networks. It is one of most effective and simple ways to hide your internet footprint. A good VPN will conceal your browsing history, personal data, login information, and IP address so it’s much more difficult for you to be tracked while online.
Other forms of data concealment include pseudoonymization and obstrucation. These are situations where sensitive data may be changed, altered or masked with false data. To create artificial data, companies can even use machine learning algorithms.
Protecting customers can be done by businesses as well. Data minimization is also known.
Cryptography
These are some of the oldest types of PETs. For instance, we’ve seen how unique-per-field derived encryption can be effective for securing crypto assets Crypto wallets
One example of the most modern encryption methods in data privacy is homomorphic encryption. This involves the encoding of data to ensure that data operations can be carried out without encryption. It’s similar to how you can open a zip folder and make changes to the files within.
There are two types:some sources Three examples of homomorphic encryption are provided:
- Homomorphic full encryption (FHE).
- Partial homomorphic encryption
PET uses another type of cryptography, secure multi-party computation (SMPC). This is similar to the way P2P cluster systems operate.
Privacy in differential settings data cryptography It is functionally identical to obfuscation. A layer of statistical noise obscures the data. This technique is used often in statistics because it hides data about individuals but reveals data that can be used to determine group-related patterns.
Zero-knowledge proof, or ZKP, works in a similar way to homomorphic encryption. Data can still be used without being revealed. ZKP makes it possible to validate data, or make use of it as validation.
What is the Best Way to Choose a Pet?
Many privacy-enhancing software are available on the marketplace. However, it’s important to identify how they would fit within your software stack and IT infrastructure. Consequently, you must recognize your services and business’s specific data privacy needs. It is important to:
- Recognize the data volume and types that your company handles. Do you have structured data or are there unstructured portions?
- Find out which third-party companies your data is being shared with, if any. You should use homomorphic encryption if you have data that is shared between different parties.
- You should identify which data parts you require. Do you want full access or only the output/result? You can negate sensitive information that could identify individuals.personally identifiable information)?
- Determine the intended purpose for which you will use your data. What will it be used for? Statistics, market data or to train a machine learning algorithm and/or other similar purposes?
- Analyze your IT infrastructure. Also, evaluate your network capabilities and computation power. This will help you determine if a particular PET is compatible with your enterprise’s resources. This information can also be used to identify which areas of your IT infrastructure need upgrading.
- Make the necessary provisions in your budget, as PETs can be expensive – some more than others.
Conclusion
Many types of PETs exist, all designed to address a particular business issue. Some are good at aggregated analysis, while others provide more precise results. Some are better at extracting insight from sensitive data than others, and some can also be best for data exploration.
Many organizations from diverse industries are rapidly collecting and analysing data in all possible modalities. It is important that organizations from different industries collect and analyze data securely while also demonstrating how they use it. This is essential for your business’s public image and financial future. PETs can only be a tiny part of the larger zero-trust system. It’s important to avoid being myopic when considering cybersecurity and data privacy.
The Author Gary Stevens, an IT specialist and part-time Ethereum developer is working on open-source projects for QTUM as well as Loopring. He’s also a part-time blogger at Privacy AustraliaYou can read his discussion on online privacy and safety.
Editor’s Note: Tripwire, Inc. does not endorse the views expressed in this guest writer article.
