The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is inviting organisations in the health industry to get involved in workshops on privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs).

PETs relate to a vast range of processes for protecting personal data which help improve data protection for organisations by design via traditional methods like encryption or more advanced solutions.

But the public body said that adoption of these technologies is currently low and that it wants to outline how they can facilitate “safe, legal and valuable” data sharing in health.

“Privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs) help organisations build trust and unlock the potential of data by putting data protection by design into practice,” said Stephen Almond, director of technology and innovation, ICO. “The healthcare sector handles highly sensitive data that could lead to life-changing, life-saving innovations. Yet organisations are not tapping into the benefits of PETs and we want to find out how to help them adopt these emerging technologies.”

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