Improved subsample-and-aggregate via the private modified winsorized mean

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Ramsay, Kelly, Spicker, Dylan
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Ramsay, Kelly
Spicker, Dylan
author_facet Ramsay, Kelly
Spicker, Dylan
contents We develop a univariate, differentially private mean estimator, called the private modified winsorized mean, designed to be used as the aggregator in subsample-and-aggregate. We demonstrate, via real data analysis, that common differentially private multivariate mean estimators may not perform well as the aggregator, even in large datasets, motivating our developments.We show that the modified winsorized mean is minimax optimal for several, large classes of distributions, even under adversarial contamination. We also demonstrate that, empirically, the private modified winsorized mean performs well compared to other private mean estimates. We consider the modified winsorized mean as the aggregator in subsample-and-aggregate, deriving a finite sample deviations bound for a subsample-and-aggregate estimate generated with the new aggregator. This result yields two important insights: (i) the optimal choice of subsamples depends on the bias of the estimator computed on the subsamples, and (ii) the rate of convergence of the subsample-and-aggregate estimator depends on the robustness of the estimator computed on the subsamples.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2501_14095
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Improved subsample-and-aggregate via the private modified winsorized mean
Ramsay, Kelly
Spicker, Dylan
Methodology
Machine Learning
62G35, 68P27
G.3.7; C.2.0
We develop a univariate, differentially private mean estimator, called the private modified winsorized mean, designed to be used as the aggregator in subsample-and-aggregate. We demonstrate, via real data analysis, that common differentially private multivariate mean estimators may not perform well as the aggregator, even in large datasets, motivating our developments.We show that the modified winsorized mean is minimax optimal for several, large classes of distributions, even under adversarial contamination. We also demonstrate that, empirically, the private modified winsorized mean performs well compared to other private mean estimates. We consider the modified winsorized mean as the aggregator in subsample-and-aggregate, deriving a finite sample deviations bound for a subsample-and-aggregate estimate generated with the new aggregator. This result yields two important insights: (i) the optimal choice of subsamples depends on the bias of the estimator computed on the subsamples, and (ii) the rate of convergence of the subsample-and-aggregate estimator depends on the robustness of the estimator computed on the subsamples.
title Improved subsample-and-aggregate via the private modified winsorized mean
topic Methodology
Machine Learning
62G35, 68P27
G.3.7; C.2.0
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.14095