AI Governance Engineer
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Privacy-enhancing technology (PET)

By Updated

A technique that reduces what an attacker, vendor or insider can learn from personal data, such as differential privacy, federated learning, synthetic data, masking or trusted execution 1. None makes a system compliant alone; each has a known failure mode and is evidenced by a test.

Developed in
ch. 19, Privacy-enhancing technologies and their honest limits
Chapters
ch. 19, Privacy & AI
Source
1 numbered reference, listed below

Where it is used

2 chapters of the Body of Knowledge use the term. Each link opens the first section that does.

Privacy-enhancing technology (PET): mentions per chapter4 mentions of the term across 2 of the 23 chapters of the Body of Knowledge; the chapters the glossary cross-references are drawn solid.Cross-referenced chapterOther chapter14 Development: 1 mention14 Development119 Privacy & AI: 3 mentions19 Privacy & AI3No mentions in the other 21 chaptersSource: the Body of Knowledgev0.5.0
Privacy-enhancing technology (PET): mentions per chapter4 mentions of the term across 2 of the 23 chapters of the Body of Knowledge; the chapters the glossary cross-references are drawn solid.Cross-referenced chapterOther chapter0001020304050607081011121314 Development: 1 mention1141516171819 Privacy & AI: 3 mentions31920212223Source: the Body of Knowledge v0.5.0
Mentions per chapter How often each chapter names the term, with the chapters the glossary cross-references drawn solid. The longest bar is where to read the term in use; bars spread across many chapters mark a term that runs through the discipline.
Mentions as a table
Mentions of Privacy-enhancing technology (PET) per chapter
ChapterMentionsCross-referenced
00 Preface0No
01 Definition0No
02 Why Now0No
03 Values & Principles0No
04 The Stack0No
05 Patterns0No
06 The Role0No
07 Maturity Model0No
08 Regulatory Map0No
10 Reading List0No
11 AI Defined0No
12 Governance Program0No
13 Risk Management0No
14 Development1No
15 Deployment0No
16 Fairness & XAI0No
17 Incidents0No
18 EU AI Act0No
19 Privacy & AI3Yes
20 Existing Law0No
21 AI Laws Worldwide0No
22 Principles & Standards0No
23 AI Agents0No
Privacy-enhancing technology (PET): related terms and patternsThe term at the centre; related terms on solid edges, the terms it is contrasted with on dashed edges, and the patterns that use it most in the colour of their layer.RelatedPrivacy-enhancing technology(PET)Related terms (3)Differential privacy · RelatedDifferential privacyFederated learning · RelatedFederated learningSynthetic data · RelatedSynthetic data
Privacy-enhancing technology (PET): related terms and patternsThe term at the centre; related terms on solid edges, the terms it is contrasted with on dashed edges, and the patterns that use it most in the colour of their layer.RelatedRelated terms (3)Differential privacy · RelatedDifferential privacyFederated learning · RelatedFederated learningSynthetic data · RelatedSynthetic dataPrivacy-enhancingtechnology (PET)
The term's neighbourhood Terms related to this one on solid edges, terms it is often confused with on dashed edges, and the patterns that use it most in the colour of their layer. Follow a dashed edge to check the distinction before you use either term.
Neighbourhood as a table
Neighbourhood of Privacy-enhancing technology (PET)
FamilyItemRelation
Related termsDifferential privacyRelated
Related termsFederated learningRelated
Related termsSynthetic dataRelated
  • Differential privacy

    A mathematical guarantee that bounds how much any single person's record can change the output of an analysis or a trained model, tuned by a privacy budget.

  • Federated learning

    Training a model across devices or sites where the data lives, sharing model updates instead of raw records.

  • Synthetic data

    Data generated by a model or simulation rather than collected from people or events, used to augment training sets, test edge cases or reduce exposure of…

Sources

  1. [1] NIST SP 800-226, Guidelines for Evaluating Differential Privacy Guarantees (differential privacy pyramid; privacy hazards). NIST. 2025-03. https://csrc.nist.gov/pubs/sp/800/226/final (verified: primary)

Definitions of legal terms paraphrase the cited text, which governs. Dated statements are as of .

Cite this term

García Aibar, J. (2026). Privacy-enhancing technology (PET). In AI Governance Engineering: The Thesis & Body of Knowledge (v0.5.0), Glossary. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22956197. https://aigovernanceengineer.com/glossary/privacy-enhancing-technology-pet. CC BY 4.0

BibTeX

@misc{aige2026privacyenhancingtechnologypet,
  author  = {Jorge García Aibar},
  title   = {{Privacy-enhancing technology (PET)}},
  note    = {Glossary, AI Governance Engineering: The Thesis \& Body of Knowledge, version 0.5.0},
  year    = {2026},
  doi     = {10.5281/zenodo.22956197},
  url     = {https://aigovernanceengineer.com/glossary/privacy-enhancing-technology-pet}
}