The European Commission is set to significantly increase its funding into the development of technologies which protect the privacy of users on the internet, announced the Commission Vice-President Franco Frattini.

Speaking at the Microsoft Innovation Day in Brussels, Mr Frattini highlighted the importance the Commission places on Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs). 'We support the development of PETs. The Commission will encourage consumers to use PETs through awareness raising campaigns. We will provide money for data protection and privacy projects, studies on PETs' economic benefits and standards for using PETs,' he said.

The EU Commissioner for Justice, Freedom and Security went a step further, stating that the EU's contribution to research into these technologies in the current Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) would go beyond the funding allocated in the previous programme.

'Europe contributed over €18 million to PET research as part of its Sixth Framework Programme. This is expected to increase significantly in the coming years. Under the Seventh Framework Programme, twenty-four new projects will be launched [as of January the 1st next year] in Information and Communication Technology Security, identity management, privacy and trust,' he said.

For the Commissioner, as industry is the main developer and provider of these technologies, it makes sense for the private sector to enter into public-private partnerships and work together with the public sector to provide innovative solutions to enhancing privacy and security across Europe.

The EU strategy on this issue has already included the launch in September of the first European Security Research and Innovation Forum (ESRIF), involving representatives of the public and private sectors.

'We see the importance of bringing people together to further PET innovations,' emphasised Mr Frattini.

PETs can help ensure that information and communication systems comply with the relevant data protection laws, while also making breaches of these laws more difficult from a technical point of view.

For example, encryption tools can prevent hackers from accessing information transmitted over the Internet, and also support the data controller in taking measures to protect personal data from unlawful processing. Cookie-cutters can block cookies placed on a computer to make it perform certain instructions without the user's knowledge. Data programmes can also be set up to anonymise data once identification of the data subjects is no longer necessary for the purposes for which the data were originally collected.

The European Commission is also expected to promote the development of these privacy enhancing technologies through large scale pilot demonstrations.

Source: Community R&D Information Service (CORDIS)