Introduction

As legislation to protect personal data has become increasingly complex, technology has provided ever more sophisticated solutions for complying with that legislation. But this is not technology’s only role. Moving beyond minimum compliance, technology can provide applications that positively enhance consumer privacy and provide consumers with greater control over their data. This chapter will consider the role of technology in this context. It will begin by examining briefly the importance of privacy, before moving on to outline the content and significance of the Data Protection Directive. The chapter will discuss how systems of privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs) can be built, before assessing their benefits, costs and limitations. Finally, what might the future hold for this technology? And do PETs have a future?

The need for privacy: trust and autonomy

At the outset, it is important to recognise why privacy is so important. Perri 6's opening chapter to this volume has categorised some of the risks involved in information use. Many other commentators have also written extensively on the meaning and importance of privacy. For the purpose of this chapter, however, I would like to focus on two concepts inextricably linked with privacy – trust (see Patrick, 2003) and autonomy.

Many organisations are striving towards a more individualised, faster and more efficient provision of goods and services. Yet individualised marketing and service provision (by both the public and private sectors) can only succeed if there is a high level of trust between providers and consumers. Without trust, virtually all of our economic and social relationships would fail. Trust enables communication and cooperation; privacy and data protection can help build trust. For instance, research continues to show that the biggest factors behind consumers’ failure to shop online are concerns about privacy and security.

One of the moral reasons for informational privacy protection is to guard against information wrongdoing (using personal data outside the sphere where these data may legitimately be used). Privacy protection helps to plot and maintain the boundaries (Walzer, 1995) of the different relatively autonomous domains of social reality, or, as Jeroen van den Hoven (1998) puts it, ‘spheres of access’.