A Safe Bet For Better Business: Privacy-Enhancing Tools

InnovationA Safe Bet For Better Business: Privacy-Enhancing ToolsByArjun Bhatnagar,Forbes Councils Member.for Forbes Technology CouncilCOUNCIL POSTExpertise from Forbes Councils members, operated under license. Opinions expressed are those of the author. | Membership (fee-based)Jun 15, 2026, 07:00am EDTArjun Bhatnagar is cofounder and CEO of Cloaked, a consumer-first privacy and security company putting people in control of their data. gettyOur society has become increasingly and dangerously comfortable sharing personal information over the last three decades. We’ve operated on a handshake agreement: We give businesses our personal information, and they give us convenience. This agreement has been based on the assumption that businesses will also do everything they can to protect our personal information. Unfortunately, this casual approach to data sharing and trust in corporate America has failed us as consumers and has become a liability for businesses. ​The risk of data collection has never been higher. Breaches, large and small, are becoming commonplace, costing global businesses an average of $4.4 million per breach, with cybercrimes resulting in nearly $21 billion in losses last year alone. We’ve learned the hard way that very few businesses have the security infrastructure in place to manage the volume of necessary (and unnecessary) data they collect, or the ability to keep pace with evolving threats and technology. ​AI has made scamming more ubiquitous and sophisticated. Unchecked data-broker sharing means a single piece of personal information can unlock every sensitive detail about someone, making it that much easier to breach organizational security protocols through the people, customers and partners attached to it. ​Even with access to privacy-enhancing tools today, such as persistent pseudo-anonymous identifiers or personas, which are proven to protect personal privacy, provide an avenue for communication and minimize the risk of breaches, we’re seeing...