Latest news with #PrivacyEnhancingTechnologies
Forbes
28-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Digital Freedom Declaration Presses EU For Clear Rules On Privacy Tech
Joachim Schwerin, principal economist at the European Commission in discussion with Judith De Boer, ... More Alexey Pertsev's lawyer Launched in May 2025, the Digital Freedom Declaration is a coordinated push by civil society, technologists, and trade groups urging European lawmakers to adopt 'sound, proportionate regulation' that protects innovation in privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs) and gives developers the legal certainty they lack today. Backed by more than two dozen organisations and experts, including the European Blockchain Association, Blockchain for Europe, the European Crypto Initiative, and, from the U.S. side, the DeFi Education Fund and the Blockchain Association, the declaration argues that PETs are indispensable to Europe's digital sovereignty. At the heart of the document is a plea for 'clear legal rules and procedures for developers and maintainers of privacy tools.' The declaration wants to foster an environment 'where emerging technologies can thrive and benefit everyone, trust in digital systems is strengthened, and data is safeguarded from cyber-threats and misuse', all while keeping the EU competitive on the global stage. To protect innovation, digital freedom, and the rule of law, signatories call for investment in public education, clearer liability rules and a shift away from prosecuting the authors of open-source code for actions committed by third-party users. Europe's policy landscape sends mixed signals. On one hand, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) may require controllers to adopt privacy by design, an imperative many technologists interpret as a mandate to integrate PETs at the protocol layer. On the other, the new Anti-Money Laundering Regulation (AMLR) will, from 1 July 2027, ban crypto-asset service providers (CASPs) under direct EU supervision from engaging with privacy coins and anonymous crypto accounts. CASPs that continue to list tokens such as Monero or ZCash risk losing their licenses. The AMLR undercuts the GDPR's privacy-by-design principle and will push legitimate crypto privacy innovation off the continent. Dr. Joachim Schwerin, a principal economist at the European Commission and signatory of the declaration, frames the issue starkly by stating that developers of PETs must never be liable for misuse once their tools are publicly available. Obfuscation techniques are a societal good he says, 'they provide an indispensable counterweight to excessive intrusion into personal data by public and private actors. Privacy enhancing technologies are essential to secure the digital rights of citizens and to guarantee the protection of business secrets and entrepreneurial freedom'. The Tornado Cash prosecution by the Netherlands remains the industry's touchstone. In May 2024, a Dutch court sentenced Alexey Pertsev to 64 months for money-laundering, holding him responsible for how strangers used the open-source PET smart contracts that he developed. Pertsev is now free under electronic monitoring while he appeals. Logo Lawmakers demand stronger privacy safeguards even as they criminalize some of the very tools that deliver them. Pertsev's counsel, Judith De Boer, views the Digital Freedom Declaration as a necessary corrective: 'Holding someone in the real world responsible for creating a neutral tool is unprecedented. A better understanding of DeFi and the role of privacy in our digital era is essential to avoid judgments that hold a developer liable for the risk that a tool can be misused by third parties. How much involvement can a developer keep with a project, what is the tipping point? We have faith in a just outcome on appeal'. Literally: all of our on-chain data is there to be seen by everyone, through block explorer tools like Etherscan. Bitcoin, Ethereum and most other public ledgers were initially designed without the inclusion of strong privacy guarantees. Once a wallet address, the equivalent of your on-chain identity, is linked to a state-given identity, often through a centralized exchange that performs know-your-customer checks, every historic transaction, counter-party graph and balance become visible. The more data is gathered, the more it can be inferred about an individual's behavior, preferences, and personality. Blockchain pseudonymity is already an artifact of the past. Blockchain-analytics firms such as Chainalysis and Arkham Intelligence have built their trade around labeling wallets and selling deanonymization services. With artificial-intelligence tools accelerating pattern recognition, the amount of behavioral data that can be inferred from a single address is growing rapidly. For consumers and businesses alike, the reliance on 'pseudonymity' as a hedge against the lack of privacy is already fading; full-stack privacy solutions are becoming a prerequisite for using blockchains in sensitive contexts such as payroll, competitive supply chains or political donations, as well as in less sensitive contexts. The future of blockchain is tied to its privacy. Whether the EU plays a meaningful part in that future is yet to be seen.
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Enveil Named in the Gartner® Market Guide for AI Trust, Risk and Security Management
Reference acknowledges the value of Privacy Enhancing Technologies in advancing AI TRiSM efforts WASHINGTON, May 7, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Enveil , the pioneering Privacy Enhancing Technology company protecting Data in Use, today announced it has been named in the 2025 Gartner "Market Guide for AI Trust, Risk and Security Management." The Guide identifies Enveil as a provider of Privacy Enhancing Technologies, specifically mentioning the company's use of homomorphic encryption. Enveil is a pioneering Privacy Enhancing Technology company protecting Data in Use (PRNewsfoto/Enveil) Included in the report's Information Governance section, the reference acknowledges the relevance of Privacy Enhancing Technologies in the context of AI Trust, Risk and Security Management (TRiSM): "Privacy-enhancing technologies (PET) are a collection of tools that help protect data in use, such as during model training, fine tuning, inference on obfuscated data, or federated model execution across entities that might not want to share data while information exchange remains a deliberate purpose. PETs can be applied in several layers of the AI TRiSM stack." Leveraging the power of Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs) , Enveil's capabilities strengthen enterprise AI/ML efforts by enabling encrypted federated learning and the secure usage of disparate, decentralized datasets for machine learning applications. As the Market Guide recognizes, demand for AI TRiSM solutions is increasing as AI projects are operationalized. "While AI capabilities are increasingly critical for many organizations, it is essential that data and analytic leaders prioritize security and privacy when implementing these workflows," said Ellison Anne Williams, Founder and CEO of Enveil. "We are proud our solutions serve to address this need by validating the impact Privacy Enhancing Technologies can have in advancing efforts in the broader AI TRiSM market, especially for enabling the secure use of cross-silo and cross-boundary data assets." Enveil's ZeroReveal® Machine Learning solutions for Encrypted Training and Encrypted Evaluation allow organizations to privately and securely leverage a broader, richer collection of data sources through the utilization of PETs. The company was selected to advance the security and operationalization of machine learning in a multi-domain environment in support of Project Linchpin, a U.S. Army initiative focused on delivering a trusted AI/ML operations pipeline. At its core, Enveil's award-winning ZeroReveal® software changes the paradigm of how and where organizations can leverage data to unlock value by ensuring that the content of the search, analytic, or machine learning model — and its corresponding results — are never exposed. The capabilities are deployed and operational at scale today, validating the mission and business-enabling value of PETs.
Associated Press
12-02-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
New Report Provides Stakeholder-driven Insight into the Fight Against Economic Crime
The report identifies obstacles and recommended actions for advancing collective efforts to combat the global challenge WASHINGTON, Feb. 12, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Strategic advisory firm Global Counsel, working in conjunction with pioneering Privacy Enhancing Technology company Enveil, announced the release of a new report aimed at advancing the fight against economic crime. This pervasive challenge makes a $3.1 trillion dollar annual global impact and costs the UK economy an estimated £8.5bn each year. The report, 'Breaking barriers: How data sharing can transform the fight against economic crime,' examines how the government and private sector can prevent and tackle economic crime by providing greater direction on data and intelligence sharing. Commissioned by Enveil and the culmination of a months-long effort, the research shows that a broad consensus exists to advance fraud mitigation efforts that would create a hostile environment for criminals. 'The lack of a clear, collective focus on economic crime prevention policy and practices by stakeholders across this space was the primary driver for undertaking this research effort,' said Ellison Anne Williams, CEO of Enveil. 'We live in a data-rich, technology-enabled world that is ripe with opportunity to evolve, and we've started to recognize areas where groundbreaking tools and capabilities can drive positive outcomes. This includes Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs), which are currently being explored and leveraged in sandbox and real-world deployments on a global scale.' The content of the white paper was sourced from interviews conducted by Global Counsel across a wide range of senior stakeholders from UK organizations at the forefront of economic crime detection, prevention, and mitigation. The authors specifically focused on cultural and policy barriers to better collaboration, data sharing, and technological innovation. The research identifies four obstacles to data and intelligence sharing: A lack of clear incentives that address cost and regulatory risk: Firms want to help, but they need legislative clarity to make it easy and inexpensive to do so. Legal ambiguity: Firms need legal clarity, for example around terms such as 'economic crime', to help them manage legal risk. A better understanding of new technologies: Criminals move fast to adapt to technological change but firms sometimes are slow to adopt new methods, particularly third-party solutions such as Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs). A fragmented data-sharing environment: There are wide differences between cross-sector pilots due to inconsistent governance and data requirements where a standardized approach would make participation easier and lower cost. Further, the report suggests progress can be made if the government and private sector provide greater direction on data and intelligence sharing. It offers three recommendations for action specific to the UK: The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), and National Economic Crime Centre (NECC) should run operational pilots, testing new technologies such as PETs, including a wide range of public and private stakeholders, to produce a common understanding of how technology can help. The Government should call time on voluntary agreements and mandate information sharing in the financial services sector. The Government should authorize the ICO and other regulatory bodies to oversee a standardized lexicon for UK data and intelligence sharing. The current economic crime climate necessitates bold action by both policy makers and industry stakeholders — and a sustainable, near-term solution will be found at the intersection of policy, technology, and a commitment to action. This means working to leverage the cross-boundary data and technology-enabling capabilities that will allow stakeholders to collaborate and fight economic crimes more effectively. Learn more about the research methodology and read the full report here. About Enveil Enveil is a pioneering Privacy Enhancing Technology company protecting Data in Use and changing the paradigm of how and where organizations can leverage data to unlock value. Defining the transformative category of Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs), Enveil's award-winning ZeroReveal® solutions for secure data usage, collaboration, monetization, and Secure AI protect the content of the search, analytic, or model while it's being used or processed. Using these business-enabling and privacy-preserving capabilities, customers can extract insights, cross-match, search, analyze, and utilize AI across boundaries and silos at scale without exposing their interests and intent or compromising the security or ownership of the underlying data. A World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer and Gartner Cool Vendor, Enveil is deployed and operational today, revolutionizing data usage in the global marketplace. Learn more at Global Counsel Global Counsel is a strategic advisory business. We help companies and investors across a wide range of sectors to anticipate the ways in which politics, regulation and public policymaking create both risk and opportunity — and to develop and implement strategies to meet these challenges. Our team has experience in politics and policymaking in national governments and international institutions backed with deep regional and local knowledge. Our offices in Berlin, Brussels, Doha, London, Singapore and Washington DC are supported by a global network of policymakers, businesses and advisers. Our partnership with The Messina Group and wider international network further strengthens our global reach. Learn more at
