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Privacy-Enhancing Technologies

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Encyclopedia of Database Systems

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Synonyms

PETs

Definition

Privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs) can be defined as technologies that are enforcing privacy principles in order to protect and enhance the privacy of users of information technology (IT) and/or of individuals about whom personal data are processed (the so-called data subjects). Privacy principles that PETs are enforcing can be derived from internationally acknowledged privacy guidelines or legislation, such as the OECD Privacy Guidelines, the EU Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC and the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and the proposed General EU Data Protection Regulation. One fundamental privacy principle that serves as the foundation for the privacy-enhancing technologies that are aiming at providing anonymity, pseudonymity, or unobservabilityfor users and/or other data subjects is the privacy principles of data minimization. It requires that the collection of personally identifiable data should be minimized (and if possible avoided),...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Karlstad University, Karlstad, Sweden

    Simone Fischer-Hübner

Authors
  1. Simone Fischer-Hübner
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Simone Fischer-Hübner .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Georgia Institute of Technology College of Computing, Atlanta, Georgia, USA

    Ling Liu

  2. University of Waterloo School of Computer Science, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

    M. Tamer Özsu

Section Editor information

  1. DiSTA, University of Insubria, Via Mazzini, 5, 21100, Varese, Italy

    Elena Ferrari

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Fischer-Hübner, S. (2017). Privacy-Enhancing Technologies. In: Liu, L., Özsu, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Database Systems. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-7993-3_271-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-7993-3_271-3

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4899-7993-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4899-7993-3

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