Maximize your data value with privacy-preserving technologies (PPTs)
Protecting our privacy and securing our data has become increasingly critical in this digital age. With the growing reliance on technology, the amount of personal data being collected, stored, and shared continues to skyrocket. This has led to a rise in cybersecurity threats, such as data breaches and identity theft, highlighting the need for privacy-preserving technologies (PPTs) to safeguard our sensitive information.
Working in the field every day, I see how companies face pressure from multiple angles. Several interconnected factors play key roles, including technological advancements, ever-more sophisticated cyberthreats, monetization of data, insufficient security measures, user behavior, and a lack of awareness.
But companies aren’t only facing challenges in these areas, there’s also the challenge of compliance. Governments and regulatory bodies are imposing stricter data protection regulations, such as the GDPR and CCPA, which require organizations to ensure the privacy and security of user data. This makes the urgency of addressing these issues very high, as failure to protect sensitive data can lead to serious consequences, such as identity theft, financial loss, reputational damage, substantial fines, loss of customer trust, legal liability, and brand damage.
Ensuring the value of data
Although there is high awareness within many organizations, I see how this opens a new and additional challenge for them as they don’t want to limit their ability to access, analyze and share data that allow them to optimize their processes. This is where the true power of privacy-preserving technologies lies. In addition to defending against cyberthreats and providing compliance benefits, PPTs are designed to protect data privacy and ensure that personal information remains confidential and secure, while at the same time allowing for data analytics.
Common used PPT’s
- Encryption
- Anonymization
- Differential Privacy
- Secure Multi-Party Computation (SMPC)
- Privacy-Preserving Data Sharing Protocols
- Privacy-Enhancing Technologies (PETs)
- Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technologies
- Federated Learning
Anonymization
Of course, the key benefit of PPT lies in encryption, which involves converting data into a code that can only be deciphered with the appropriate decryption key. This helps to prevent unauthorized access to sensitive information, even if data is intercepted or stolen. This is nothing new — a lot of applications already make use of it; the added value of PTT lies in anonymization and access control. Anonymization helps by removing or altering personally identifiable information (PII) from data sets and is commonly used in data sharing and research settings, where organizations need to share data for analysis while protecting the privacy of individuals. By anonymizing data, privacy-preserving technologies allow for the use of data for various purposes, while minimizing the risk of privacy breaches.
Access control
In addition, privacy-preserving technologies also include tools such as access controls, which restrict and manage who has access to certain data or systems. This helps prevent unauthorized access to sensitive information and ensures that only authorized personnel can access data based on their roles and permissions. Access controls are crucial in protecting data from insider threats, where employees or other insiders may attempt to gain unauthorized access to sensitive information.
Privacy-preserving technologies thus allow companies and organizations to comply with existing regulations and protect themselves from cyberthreats, while at the same time maximizing the value of their data in the safest way possible. At Portera, we help companies and organizations maximize their data value through PPTs and other valuable technologies.
Get in touch and discover how we can provide you with the right levers to maximize your data value.