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Main Authors: Galli, Filippo, Palamidessi, Catuscia, Cucinotta, Tommaso
Format: Preprint
Published: 2023
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2310.00829
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author Galli, Filippo
Palamidessi, Catuscia
Cucinotta, Tommaso
author_facet Galli, Filippo
Palamidessi, Catuscia
Cucinotta, Tommaso
contents Training differentially private machine learning models requires constraining an individual's contribution to the optimization process. This is achieved by clipping the $2$-norm of their gradient at a predetermined threshold prior to averaging and batch sanitization. This selection adversely influences optimization in two opposing ways: it either exacerbates the bias due to excessive clipping at lower values, or augments sanitization noise at higher values. The choice significantly hinges on factors such as the dataset, model architecture, and even varies within the same optimization, demanding meticulous tuning usually accomplished through a grid search. In order to circumvent the privacy expenses incurred in hyperparameter tuning, we present a novel approach to dynamically optimize the clipping threshold. We treat this threshold as an additional learnable parameter, establishing a clean relationship between the threshold and the cost function. This allows us to optimize the former with gradient descent, with minimal repercussions on the overall privacy analysis. Our method is thoroughly assessed against alternative fixed and adaptive strategies across diverse datasets, tasks, model dimensions, and privacy levels. Our results indicate that it performs comparably or better in the evaluated scenarios, given the same privacy requirements.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2310_00829
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Online Sensitivity Optimization in Differentially Private Learning
Galli, Filippo
Palamidessi, Catuscia
Cucinotta, Tommaso
Machine Learning
Training differentially private machine learning models requires constraining an individual's contribution to the optimization process. This is achieved by clipping the $2$-norm of their gradient at a predetermined threshold prior to averaging and batch sanitization. This selection adversely influences optimization in two opposing ways: it either exacerbates the bias due to excessive clipping at lower values, or augments sanitization noise at higher values. The choice significantly hinges on factors such as the dataset, model architecture, and even varies within the same optimization, demanding meticulous tuning usually accomplished through a grid search. In order to circumvent the privacy expenses incurred in hyperparameter tuning, we present a novel approach to dynamically optimize the clipping threshold. We treat this threshold as an additional learnable parameter, establishing a clean relationship between the threshold and the cost function. This allows us to optimize the former with gradient descent, with minimal repercussions on the overall privacy analysis. Our method is thoroughly assessed against alternative fixed and adaptive strategies across diverse datasets, tasks, model dimensions, and privacy levels. Our results indicate that it performs comparably or better in the evaluated scenarios, given the same privacy requirements.
title Online Sensitivity Optimization in Differentially Private Learning
topic Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2310.00829