Risks of Privacy-Enhancing Technologies: Complexity and Implications of Differential Privacy in the Context of Cybercrime

Abstract

In recent years, the swift expansion of technology-enabled data harvesting has infiltrated modern life and led to the collection of massive amounts of private data. As a result, the preservation of individual privacy has become a salient concern for the general public. Combined with an increase in the frequency and prevalence of cybercrime, more of the public now face the very real risk of privacy loss associated with illegitimate use of private data. Differential Privacy has emerged as a relatively new privacy-preserving method with the potential to significantly reduce the likelihood of harmful data disclosures stemming from malicious use. However, research has not explicitly investigated Differential Privacy from the perspective of criminal justice or examined the utility of Differential Privacy as a possible situational crime prevention measure to cybercrime. Therefore, this chapter explores the proliferation of cybercrime through advances in technology and briefly examines other privacy-preserving methods before discussing the possible use of Differential Privacy as a viable countermeasure to cybercrime. The chapter concludes with a discussion of several practical considerations related to the use of Differential Privacy as a tool in the fight against cybercrime and offers recommendations for future research.