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About

What is Privacy Engineering?

Privacy engineering is a specialty discipline of systems engineering focused on removing conditions that can create problems for people when system operations process their information.

 

Privacy Matters

Privacy and security concerns about our digital world can impact individuals’ daily lives and the larger economy.

Security and Privacy Concerns Infographic
Source: National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA)

 

NIST's Privacy Engineering Program (PEP)

Privacy engineering is integral to establishing trustworthiness in information systems that support the growth of the digital economy and improve individual quality of life. NIST research in information technology–including cybersecurity, cloud computing, big data, the Smart Grid and other cyber-physical systems–aims to improve the products and services that bring great advancements to U.S. national and economic security and quality of life. Much of this research pertains to the trustworthiness of these information technologies and the systems in which they are incorporated.

Given concerns about how information technologies may affect privacy at individual and societal levels, the PEP supports the development of trustworthy information systems by applying measurement science and system engineering principles to the creation of frameworks, risk models, guidance, tools, and standards that protect privacy and, by extension, civil liberties.

 

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Created August 3, 2017, Updated August 15, 2018