May Your PETs not Wash Away Your Rights

Contributor(s)

Kris Shrishak and Hinako Sugiyama

Abstract

Privacy-enhancing technologies have been touted as a way to protect privacy and yet process data about. Although the theoretical foundations have existed for many years, these technologies have seen increased adoption and deployment recently, especially from global tech companies and governments. However, do PETs always protect privacy? In this work, we show how international human rights law can be an important lens for understanding the privacy PETs should offer. We elucidate this through the analysis of an example case study.