Introducing a Framework for Measuring the Quantitative Benefits of Privacy-Enhancing Technologies

Abstract

This paper reviews privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs) and explores their benefits when used to make traditional payment processes more private. PETs can decrease privacy risk by reducing the amount of sensitive information accessible to payment-processing personnel and systems. This paper proposes a framework for quantifying the risk-reduction benefits of PETs. This method can be used to calculate the amount of privacy-risk exposure that may be created by a set of payment activities, estimate the amount by which PETs can decrease that exposure, and compare that quantified benefit against possible PET drawbacks. Assessing these drawbacks is outside the scope of this paper.