Probabilistic counters are well known tools often used for space-efficient set cardinality estimation. In this paper we investigate probabilistic counters from the perspective of preserving privacy. We use standard, rigid differential privacy notion. The intuition is that the probabilistic counters do not reveal too much information about individuals, but provide only general information about the population. Thus they can be used safely without violating privacy of individuals. It turned out however that providing a precise, formal analysis of privacy parameters of probabilistic counters is surprisingly difficult and needs advanced techniques and a very careful approach. We demonstrate also that probabilistic counters can be used as a privacy protecion mechanism without any extra randomization. That is, the inherit randomization from the protocol is sufficient for protecting privacy, even if the probabilistic counter is used many times. In particular we present a specific privacy-preserving data aggregation protocol based on a probabilistic counter. Our results can be used for example in performing distributed surveys.
In Statistical Relational Artificial Intelligence, a branch of AI and machine learning which combines the logical and statistical schools of AI, one uses the concept {\em para\-metrized probabilistic graphical model (PPGM)} to model (conditional) dependencies between random variables and to make probabilistic inferences about events on a space of "possible worlds". The set of possible worlds with underlying domain $D$ (a set of objects) can be represented by the set $\mathbf{W}_D$ of all first-order structures (for a suitable signature) with domain $D$. Using a formal logic we can describe events on $\mathbf{W}_D$. By combining a logic and a PPGM we can also define a probability distribution $\mathbb{P}_D$ on $\mathbf{W}_D$ and use it to compute the probability of an event. We consider a logic, denoted $PLA$, with truth values in the unit interval, which uses aggregation functions, such as arithmetic mean, geometric mean, maximum and minimum instead of quantifiers. However we face the problem of computational efficiency and this problem is an obstacle to the wider use of methods from Statistical Relational AI in practical applications. We address this problem by proving that the described probability will, under certain assumptions on the PPGM and the sentence $\varphi$, converge as the size of $D$ tends to infinity. The convergence result is obtained by showing that every formula $\varphi(x_1, \ldots, x_k)$ which contains only "admissible" aggregation functions (e.g. arithmetic and geometric mean, max and min) is asymptotically equivalent to a formula $\psi(x_1, \ldots, x_k)$ without aggregation functions.
Large scale adoption of large language models has introduced a new era of convenient knowledge transfer for a slew of natural language processing tasks. However, these models also run the risk of undermining user trust by exposing unwanted information about the data subjects, which may be extracted by a malicious party, e.g. through adversarial attacks. We present an empirical investigation into the extent of the personal information encoded into pre-trained representations by a range of popular models, and we show a positive correlation between the complexity of a model, the amount of data used in pre-training, and data leakage. In this paper, we present the first wide coverage evaluation and comparison of some of the most popular privacy-preserving algorithms, on a large, multi-lingual dataset on sentiment analysis annotated with demographic information (location, age and gender). The results show since larger and more complex models are more prone to leaking private information, use of privacy-preserving methods is highly desirable. We also find that highly privacy-preserving technologies like differential privacy (DP) can have serious model utility effects, which can be ameliorated using hybrid or metric-DP techniques.
We give a fast algorithm for sampling uniform solutions of general constraint satisfaction problems (CSPs) in a local lemma regime. The expected running time of our algorithm is near-linear in $n$ and a fixed polynomial in $\Delta$, where $n$ is the number of variables and $\Delta$ is the max degree of constraints. Previously, up to similar conditions, sampling algorithms with running time polynomial in both $n$ and $\Delta$, only existed for the almost atomic case, where each constraint is violated by a small number of forbidden local configurations. Our sampling approach departs from all previous fast algorithms for sampling LLL, which were based on Markov chains. A crucial step of our algorithm is a recursive marginal sampler that is of independent interests. Within a local lemma regime, this marginal sampler can draw a random value for a variable according to its marginal distribution, at a local cost independent of the size of the CSP.
We consider the question of adaptive data analysis within the framework of convex optimization. We ask how many samples are needed in order to compute $\epsilon$-accurate estimates of $O(1/\epsilon^2)$ gradients queried by gradient descent, and we provide two intermediate answers to this question. First, we show that for a general analyst (not necessarily gradient descent) $\Omega(1/\epsilon^3)$ samples are required. This rules out the possibility of a foolproof mechanism. Our construction builds upon a new lower bound (that may be of interest of its own right) for an analyst that may ask several non adaptive questions in a batch of fixed and known $T$ rounds of adaptivity and requires a fraction of true discoveries. We show that for such an analyst $\Omega (\sqrt{T}/\epsilon^2)$ samples are necessary. Second, we show that, under certain assumptions on the oracle, in an interaction with gradient descent $\tilde \Omega(1/\epsilon^{2.5})$ samples are necessary. Our assumptions are that the oracle has only \emph{first order access} and is \emph{post-hoc generalizing}. First order access means that it can only compute the gradients of the sampled function at points queried by the algorithm. Our assumption of \emph{post-hoc generalization} follows from existing lower bounds for statistical queries. More generally then, we provide a generic reduction from the standard setting of statistical queries to the problem of estimating gradients queried by gradient descent. These results are in contrast with classical bounds that show that with $O(1/\epsilon^2)$ samples one can optimize the population risk to accuracy of $O(\epsilon)$ but, as it turns out, with spurious gradients.
The emerging public awareness and government regulations of data privacy motivate new paradigms of collecting and analyzing data that are transparent and acceptable to data owners. We present a new concept of privacy and corresponding data formats, mechanisms, and theories for privatizing data during data collection. The privacy, named Interval Privacy, enforces the raw data conditional distribution on the privatized data to be the same as its unconditional distribution over a nontrivial support set. Correspondingly, the proposed privacy mechanism will record each data value as a random interval (or, more generally, a range) containing it. The proposed interval privacy mechanisms can be easily deployed through survey-based data collection interfaces, e.g., by asking a respondent whether its data value is within a randomly generated range. Another unique feature of interval mechanisms is that they obfuscate the truth but do not perturb it. Using narrowed range to convey information is complementary to the popular paradigm of perturbing data. Also, the interval mechanisms can generate progressively refined information at the discretion of individuals, naturally leading to privacy-adaptive data collection. We develop different aspects of theory such as composition, robustness, distribution estimation, and regression learning from interval-valued data. Interval privacy provides a new perspective of human-centric data privacy where individuals have a perceptible, transparent, and simple way of sharing sensitive data.
Medical data is often highly sensitive in terms of data privacy and security concerns. Federated learning, one type of machine learning techniques, has been started to use for the improvement of the privacy and security of medical data. In the federated learning, the training data is distributed across multiple machines, and the learning process is performed in a collaborative manner. There are several privacy attacks on deep learning (DL) models to get the sensitive information by attackers. Therefore, the DL model itself should be protected from the adversarial attack, especially for applications using medical data. One of the solutions for this problem is homomorphic encryption-based model protection from the adversary collaborator. This paper proposes a privacy-preserving federated learning algorithm for medical data using homomorphic encryption. The proposed algorithm uses a secure multi-party computation protocol to protect the deep learning model from the adversaries. In this study, the proposed algorithm using a real-world medical dataset is evaluated in terms of the model performance.
Dynamic Linear Models (DLMs) are commonly employed for time series analysis due to their versatile structure, simple recursive updating, ability to handle missing data, and probabilistic forecasting. However, the options for count time series are limited: Gaussian DLMs require continuous data, while Poisson-based alternatives often lack sufficient modeling flexibility. We introduce a novel semiparametric methodology for count time series by warping a Gaussian DLM. The warping function has two components: a (nonparametric) transformation operator that provides distributional flexibility and a rounding operator that ensures the correct support for the discrete data-generating process. We develop conjugate inference for the warped DLM, which enables analytic and recursive updates for the state space filtering and smoothing distributions. We leverage these results to produce customized and efficient algorithms for inference and forecasting, including Monte Carlo simulation for offline analysis and an optimal particle filter for online inference. This framework unifies and extends a variety of discrete time series models and is valid for natural counts, rounded values, and multivariate observations. Simulation studies illustrate the excellent forecasting capabilities of the warped DLM. The proposed approach is applied to a multivariate time series of daily overdose counts and demonstrates both modeling and computational successes.
Bayesian model selection provides a powerful framework for objectively comparing models directly from observed data, without reference to ground truth data. However, Bayesian model selection requires the computation of the marginal likelihood (model evidence), which is computationally challenging, prohibiting its use in many high-dimensional Bayesian inverse problems. With Bayesian imaging applications in mind, in this work we present the proximal nested sampling methodology to objectively compare alternative Bayesian imaging models for applications that use images to inform decisions under uncertainty. The methodology is based on nested sampling, a Monte Carlo approach specialised for model comparison, and exploits proximal Markov chain Monte Carlo techniques to scale efficiently to large problems and to tackle models that are log-concave and not necessarily smooth (e.g., involving l_1 or total-variation priors). The proposed approach can be applied computationally to problems of dimension O(10^6) and beyond, making it suitable for high-dimensional inverse imaging problems. It is validated on large Gaussian models, for which the likelihood is available analytically, and subsequently illustrated on a range of imaging problems where it is used to analyse different choices of dictionary and measurement model.
We propose a novel federated learning paradigm to model data variability among heterogeneous clients in multi-centric studies. Our method is expressed through a hierarchical Bayesian latent variable model, where client-specific parameters are assumed to be realization from a global distribution at the master level, which is in turn estimated to account for data bias and variability across clients. We show that our framework can be effectively optimized through expectation maximization (EM) over latent master's distribution and clients' parameters. We also introduce formal differential privacy (DP) guarantees compatibly with our EM optimization scheme. We tested our method on the analysis of multi-modal medical imaging data and clinical scores from distributed clinical datasets of patients affected by Alzheimer's disease. We demonstrate that our method is robust when data is distributed either in iid and non-iid manners, even when local parameters perturbation is included to provide DP guarantees. Moreover, the variability of data, views and centers can be quantified in an interpretable manner, while guaranteeing high-quality data reconstruction as compared to state-of-the-art autoencoding models and federated learning schemes. The code is available at //gitlab.inria.fr/epione/federated-multi-views-ppca.
Federated learning with differential privacy, or private federated learning, provides a strategy to train machine learning models while respecting users' privacy. However, differential privacy can disproportionately degrade the performance of the models on under-represented groups, as these parts of the distribution are difficult to learn in the presence of noise. Existing approaches for enforcing fairness in machine learning models have considered the centralized setting, in which the algorithm has access to the users' data. This paper introduces an algorithm to enforce group fairness in private federated learning, where users' data does not leave their devices. First, the paper extends the modified method of differential multipliers to empirical risk minimization with fairness constraints, thus providing an algorithm to enforce fairness in the central setting. Then, this algorithm is extended to the private federated learning setting. The proposed algorithm, \texttt{FPFL}, is tested on a federated version of the Adult dataset and an "unfair" version of the FEMNIST dataset. The experiments on these datasets show how private federated learning accentuates unfairness in the trained models, and how FPFL is able to mitigate such unfairness.