SW01 established that privacy laws like the GDPR and Swiss revDSG create legal obligations. But how do organizations actually implement privacy at a technical level?

Privacy Enhancing Technologies, or PETs, are technical tools and methods that protect personal data by minimizing collection, ensuring confidentiality, and reducing risk.

Privacy Enhancing Technologies are technologies that shape data processing so that data protection is maximized... without unnecessarily restricting the purpose of the processing itself.

Goals of PETs:

• Technically support legal requirements like Datensparsamkeit, meaning data parsimony.
• Ensure purpose limitation and transparency.
• Guarantee confidentiality of personal data.
• Minimize risks for affected individuals.

Why do we need PETs? Data protection laws like the DSG and DSGVO require technical and organizational measures. But here's the critical insight: many privacy risks don't come from "classic hacks." They arise from problematic data processing itself. Re-identification of anonymized data, profiling through tracking, data leakage to third parties in cloud storage. PETs address these risks at the technical level, often already in the design stage.

Go deeper:

• ENISA — Data Protection Engineering — EU guidance on selecting PETs/TOMs to meet GDPR Art. 5.