Practice Area:	Competition & Antitrust
Client:	EC DG Freedom, Security and Justice
Published:	July, 2010
Tagged:	qualitative analysis quantitative analysis stakeholder surveys and consultations other international

This report for the European Commission’s DG Freedom, Security and Justice investigates the economic benefits of privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs) for data controllers, with a particular focus on SMEs. Based on consultations with data protection authorities in 12 Member States, as well as on a large-scale survey of businesses and a number of case studies detailing successful deployments of PETs, the study shows clearly that the benefits of PETs are technology-specific as well as dependent on the applications in which PETs are deployed.

Only a subset of PETs protect privacy without reducing the utility of data for data controllers. Such ‘true’ PETs are currently underused, but they hold the promise of substantial economic benefits.