Privacy-preserving computation meets quantum computing: A scoping review

Privacy-Preserving Computation (PPC) comprises the techniques, schemes and protocols which ensure privacy and confidentiality in the context of secure computation and data analysis. Most of the current PPC techniques rely on the complexity of cryptographic operations, which are expected to be efficiently solved by quantum computers soon. This review explores how PPC can be built on top of quantum computing itself to alleviate these future threats. We analyze quantum proposals for Secure Multi-party Computation, Oblivious Transfer and Homomorphic Encryption from the last decade focusing on their maturity and the challenges they currently face. Our findings show a strong focus on purely theoretical works, but a rise on the experimental consideration of these techniques in the last 5 years. The applicability of these techniques to actual use cases is an underexplored aspect which could lead to the practical assessment of these techniques.