Out-Law / Your Daily Need-To-Know

Out-Law News 1 min. read

Guidance on privacy tools from Britain's privacy chief


The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has issued brief guidance to bring to a wider audience the use of privacy enhancing technologies, or PETs, to help protect people’s personal information.

PETs have traditionally been considered to be software and other systems which allow individuals to withhold their true identity when using electronic systems, such as anonymous web browsers, specialist email services, and digital cash.

However, the ICO considers them to include any technology which exists to protect or enhance an individual’s privacy. So a system that allowed a doctor to see all the details of a medical record but only allowed the receptionist to see the contact and administrative information would be using a privacy enhancing approach.

Deputy Information Commissioner David Smith believes the technologies can be "a winning strategy" for the businesses which install them. "They help reduce the risks of privacy breaches and the significant costs associated with them at the same time as building trust among customers and clients," he said.

The ICO’s note provides some examples of the use of PETs, including:

  • Encrypted biometric access systems that allow the use of a fingerprint to authenticate an individual’s identity without retaining the actual fingerprint;
  • Secure online access for individuals to their own personal data to check its accuracy and make amendments;
  • Software that allows browsers to automatically detect the privacy policy of websites and compares it to the preferences expressed by the user and alerting the user to any clashes, known as P3P; and
  • ‘Sticky’ electronic privacy policies that are attached to the information itself preventing it being used in any way that is not compatible with that policy.

The guidance does not go into any detail on these PETs.

We are processing your request. \n Thank you for your patience. An error occurred. This could be due to inactivity on the page - please try again.