Privacy Technologies & The Digital Economy

IMF Working Papers, March 28, 2025

Source details

Active and open participation in the digital economy is required for users and society to derive the maximum benefit from digital technology.
Users may withhold or withdraw active participation in response to risks, notably privacy concerns that induce behavior limiting digital footprints to shield personal data from third parties and governments.
Coupled with regulation, privacy technologies can help build trust in the digital economy.
If designed and deployed appropriately, privacy technologies could form the basis of trust in the digital economy.
The primer aims to provide a foundational tool to help supervisors understand strengths and weaknesses of privacy technologies.

Understand the strengths and weaknesses of privacy technologies; the primer provides foundational guidance to achieve this.
Domestic collaboration and international cooperation are indispensable to improve knowledge sharing and provide clarity regarding mandates and rules.
Recognize cybersecurity implications and tradeoffs in using privacy technologies.

Privacy technologies as enablers of trust when combined with regulation.
Behavioral responses to privacy risks: users limiting digital footprints.
The role of supervision, domestic and international cooperation, and cybersecurity tradeoffs in deployment of privacy technologies.

Subject: Digital economy, Economic sectors, Emerging technologies, Financial services, Technology
Keywords: cryptography, cyber, differential privacy, digital, Digital economy, Emerging technologies, encryption, Fintech, Global, PET, privacy, privacy technology, regulation, role of privacy technology, supervision, synthetic data, technology conglomerate, users' privacy concern

IMF Working Papers — "Privacy Technologies & The Digital Economy", March 28, 2025, Working Paper No. 2025/060.