Privacy-Enhancing Cryptology in the Swedish Public Administration

Abstract: Public administrations face a fundamental tension: the urgent need for data-driven decision-making and AI training versus the strict constraints of data protection laws (such as GDPR in the EU) and national security acts. Traditional methods of anonymization often fail to balance data utility with privacy, creating “data silos” that hinder socio-economic growth. This presentation explores the implementation of a national infrastructure in Sweden designed to bridge this gap through the deployment of advanced cryptographic PETs.  We examine the transition from traditional data exchange to a model of “insight sharing,” where results are computed without the underlying raw data ever being exposed. Central to this framework is the prioritization of Secure Multi-Party Computation as a government-wide service, enabling cross-agency matching and statistical aggregation without a trusted third party. The talk will detail the technical applications of Homomorphic Encryption — including Fully Homomorphic Encryption for quantum resistant processing — and Zero-Knowledge Proofs for secure identity and attribute verification.  Drawing on the findings of the Inquiry on Privacy-Enhancing Technologies in Public Administration (En stärkt förmåga till modern datadelning — integritetsfrämjande teknik i offentlig förvaltning, SOU 2026:44), we discuss the challenges of scaling these technologies from academic concepts to operational government services. We will highlight specific use cases, including cross-border medical research, automated fraud detection in social security, and the creation of synthetic datasets. The session concludes with a vision for a “Cryptographic Computing” ecosystem where encrypted data flows are the standard, ensuring that the public sector can maximize the utility of its data while providing mathematically provable privacy guarantees.

Joint work: Alexander Engström, Gabriella Jansson, Erik Janzon, Fredrik Qvist, Ann Sofie Silversved.

Suggested readings:

• "Enhanced capacity for modern data sharing – privacy-enhancing technologies in public administration" (in Swedish)