PPM aims to develop protocols that collect data and information at the application layer for measurement purposes, while also protecting an individual’s privacy. Researchers and companies may require measurements to determine trends within a large population sample; for example, how many websites fail to render or how many applications fail to respond. Some of the data reported, such as IP addresses, are personally identifiable information and can be used to track or profile individuals. New cryptographic techniques where multiple servers compute aggregated statistics without learning a set of measurements may prevent attackers from connecting the measurements to an individual. One of the working group's contentions relates to the balance between a proposed protocol's reliance on cryptographic mechanisms, interactions of non-colluding parties, and policies of individual actors. This leads to questions such as how precise the aggregated measurements would be.