Scholar warns of the privacy implications of quantum technology.
Modern technology transforms human experiences, interactions, and behaviors into quantifiable data. Artificial intelligence is a key part of today’s transformation. But so too are so-called quantum technologies—innovations that use physics principles combined with information and computer science, to overcome the limits of classical computers.
In a forthcoming book chapter, Zahra Takhshid of the University of Denver Sturm College of Law argues that quantum technologies can both undermine and improve online privacy. Takhshid warns against the use of quantum systems for data harvesting while offering recommendations that call on technologists and lawyers to research these advancements to create more robust civilian privacy protections.
Takhshid explains that dating back to the early twentieth century, quantum mechanics was used to supplement classical computers, leading to the discovery that information can be acquired, manipulated, and encoded in quantum systems. Later advancements in quantum technology, namely its decryption ability, exposed a major vulnerability in communications encryption, Takhshid describes.
Current encryption relies on large, complex math problems that classical computers cannot solve in practice because they test one solution at a time. Quantum computing, however, explores many solutions at once, making decryption a real possibility, which raises serious privacy concerns that even private online communications—such as conversations on social media—could be decrypted and exposed.
Researchers continue to develop a quantum solution to this quantum problem: quantum key distribution. Quantum key distribution relies on physics principles to detect and block interferences such as copying and eavesdropping. Still, Takhshid recognizes a controversy surrounding quantum key distribution—which remains under scrutiny as it continues through early testing—but still advocates quantum innovations as a solution to strengthen privacy protections.
Quantum key distribution secures messages over physical short distances. But what if a quantum internet network could link computers over long distances? Takhshid raises this question and hypothesizes that the quantum internet will eventually revolutionize how people send, compute, and receive information online. She warns, however, that current internet protocols do not support a smooth transition to quantum systems and leave user data vulnerable to harvesting.
To confront these risks during the transition, the Internet Engineering Task Force, a volunteer-driven organization dedicated to developing internet standards, created the Quantum Internet Research Group to tackle barriers to standardizing the quantum internet. Takhshid argues that if researchers design new protocols for a quantum internet, those protocols could work with quantum key distribution to protect consumer privacy and limit government surveillance, though she leaves the claim underdeveloped because the technology remains nascent.
Quantum sensing marks another advancement Takhshid identifies as carrying privacy implications. This technology uses physics principles to detect or measure objects, and it finds its most significant applications in positioning, navigation, and timing systems.
Takhshid acknowledges that quantum sensing will not introduce new threats to geolocational privacy, since phones and global positioning systems (GPS) devices already allow precise location tracking. Takhshid counters that even more accurate geolocational tools raise national security concerns, especially when asymmetries in GPS capabilities give one country an advantage over another. She also stresses that governments and corporations prize geolocational data, pointing to GPS as an example of a military technology that the U.S. government later deployed for civilian surveillance use.
Beyond geolocation, Takhshid addresses two additional privacy concerns tied to sensing: accelerometers and ghost imaging. Advanced accelerometers, which can penetrate underground or underwater, could enable surveillance in areas previously unreachable by traditional GPS, she explains. As for ghost imaging, Takhshid argues that the process of using photons to capture objects outside a camera’s direct view could support covert imaging if such technology enters commercial markets.
To address the privacy concerns raised by quantum sensing, communications, and the internet—namely that malicious or governmental actors could use these developments to engage in civilian surveillance, internet communications eavesdropping, and data harvesting—Takhshid proposes privacy protection recommendations that urge both the private and public sectors to invest time and money in studying quantum technologies.
She warns that centralizing quantum expertise within a few dominant market players—currently, Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and Intel makes it harder to prioritize privacy considerations by limiting oversight and risking industry capture that prioritizes commercial gain over user protection, and calls for broader investments that enable new researchers and industry entrants to compete.
Takhshid implies that the complexity of quantum systems makes it hard for regulators and legal scholars to understand the technology and apply existing privacy solutions. To bridge this gap, she calls for work that “demystifies” quantum technology by explaining it in accessible terms and cautions against labeling quantum systems as “exceptional” technology, a term used by technologists to denote novel and transformative innovations. Takhshid contends that these shifts in scholarship could help regulators and legal scholars do their job.
Finally, Takhshid underscores the need for an interdisciplinary approach to privacy in the Quantum Age. She calls on legal scholars and regulatory agencies to partner with scientific departments to evaluate the social impacts of these technologies and to collaborate on mitigation strategies. On the global stage, she advocates international partnerships and wider dissemination of quantum discoveries to reduce inequality in access to such powerful tools.
Although Takhshid does not provide a blueprint for resolving these privacy challenges, she opens the door to further inquiry by offering recommendations for future scholars and regulators to adapt as quantum technologies mature.
