Technical Perspective on 'R2T: Instance-optimal Truncation for Differentially Private Query Evaluation with Foreign Keys

Abstract

Increased use of data to inform decision making has brought with it a rising awareness of the importance of privacy, and the need for appropriate mitigations to be put in place to protect the interests of individuals whose data is being processed. From the demographic statistics that are produced by national censuses, to the complex predictive models built by "big tech" companies, data is the fuel that powers these applications. A majority of such uses rely on data that is derived from the properties and actions of individual people. This data is therefore considered sensitive, and in need of protections to prevent inappropriate use or disclosure. Some protections come from enforcing policies, access control, and contractual agreements. But in addition, we also seek technical interventions: definitions and algorithms that can be applied by computer systems in order to protect the private information while still enabling the intended use.