How can organisations use sensitive data without exposing the people and organisations behind it? Privacy enhancing technologies (PETs) offer an answer, and a new OECD resource shows how they’re already being put to work.
The OECD Global Repository for Privacy Enhancing Technologies brings together real-world PETs deployments from across industries and sectors in one place. It’s built for policymakers, regulators and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) who want to see what these technologies can do and how to use them responsibly.
PETs let organisations process and share data while keeping sensitive information protected. The technologies have matured, but adoption still lags, held back by gaps in knowledge, legal uncertainty and cost. The repository tackles these barriers head-on: it presents practical use cases in a consistent format and links each one to the relevant policy and regulatory guidance. The goal is to make PETs easier to understand, both technically and legally, and to give regulators and organisations the confidence to adopt them.
The repository is the product of international, multistakeholder collaboration. It builds on OECD work on regulatory and policy approaches to PETs (2023) and sharing trustworthy AI models with PETs (2025), as well as expert workshops held in 2024–25. G7 ministers recognised the initiative in their 2025 Industry, Technology and Digital Ministerial Declaration.
The launch version features use cases and documents from regulators and governments, and future updates will draw on a wider range of contributors. A new PETs Policy Advisory Board, working alongside the OECD’s Data Free Flow with Trust (DFFT) expert community, will guide the repository as it grows.
