How to Foster the Adoption of Privacy-Enhancing Technologies

Although data privacy is a crucial topic, given how many digital technologies we use every day, assuring it from a technical perspective can still be a challenging task. While data protection regulations such as the GDPR provide a legal mandate and guidance for protecting the privacy of individuals, their wording is often ambiguous, leaving a lot of room for interpretation. In practice, this often leads to companies looking for simpler solutions just to be compliant “on paper.” At the same time, various Privacy-Enhancing Technologies (PETs) such as Differential Privacy and Homomorphic Encryption have emerged from the research community, yet they are not widely implemented in practice due to the lack of incentive for organizations to do so, as well as due to the inherent complexity and lack of understanding of these technologies. Supporting the practical adoption of these highly complex technologies by educating relevant stakeholders is the goal of Software Campus graduate Alexandra Klymenko and her LACE project: “Learn, Apply, Comply: Development of Continuing Education Materials on Privacy-Enhancing Technologies”.

 

Alexandra is a PhD student at the chair for Software Engineering for Business Information Systems (sebis) at the Technical University of Munich. She started her Software Campus project in 2022 together with Huawei as a partner, and defined the objective as follows:

  1. Identify practical challenges in the implementation of technical measures for data privacy compliance
  2. Raise awareness and educate practitioners on Privacy-Enhancing Technologies
  3. Bridge the gap between technical and legal understanding of privacy to support the process of data privacy compliance in organizations

The final outcome of this project is a free e-learning platform that is available to everyone under www.privacyeducation.tech

 

Since data privacy is a highly interdisciplinary subject, LACE approaches the education on PETs by mediating between three foundational privacy perspectives in the enterprise context: computer scientists, lawyers, and managers. The learning material is offered in small “learning nuggets” that cover the fundamentals of advanced PETs, the legal basics of data protection regulations and Privacy by Design, as well as the benefits that come with adopting PETs. All learning materials are presented in simple language, making them easy to follow regardless of the person’s background.

The course “Basics of PET’s for Non-Technical Practitioners” marks what has been developed within Software Campus, supported by €100.000 in funding from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).

Generally, users learn about definitions and characteristics of PETs as well as the benefits and challenges that come with a specific technology. Applications and examples bridge the gap to real-world use cases, and quizzes invite learners to test their newly acquired knowledge. All of this can be done at one’s own pace.

 

Currently, Alexandra’s team is working on a whitepaper to conclude their results. In addition, the fine-tuning of the e-learning platform is in progress. To support this, users are encouraged to leave their feedback for future improvement.

Learn more and visit the e-learning platform here: www.privacyeducation.tech

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