Investigating User Perspectives on Differentially Private Text Privatization

Fuente: arXiv
Gespeichert in:
Bibliographische Detailangaben
Hauptverfasser: Meisenbacher, Stephen, Klymenko, Alexandra, Karpp, Alexander, Matthes, Florian
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
Schlagworte:
Online-Zugang:
Tags: Tag hinzufügen
Keine Tags, Fügen Sie den ersten Tag hinzu!
_version_ 1866909535729352704
author Meisenbacher, Stephen
Klymenko, Alexandra
Karpp, Alexander
Matthes, Florian
author_facet Meisenbacher, Stephen
Klymenko, Alexandra
Karpp, Alexander
Matthes, Florian
contents Recent literature has seen a considerable uptick in $\textit{Differentially Private Natural Language Processing}$ (DP NLP). This includes DP text privatization, where potentially sensitive input texts are transformed under DP to achieve privatized output texts that ideally mask sensitive information $\textit{and}$ maintain original semantics. Despite continued work to address the open challenges in DP text privatization, there remains a scarcity of work addressing user perceptions of this technology, a crucial aspect which serves as the final barrier to practical adoption. In this work, we conduct a survey study with 721 laypersons around the globe, investigating how the factors of $\textit{scenario}$, $\textit{data sensitivity}$, $\textit{mechanism type}$, and $\textit{reason for data collection}$ impact user preferences for text privatization. We learn that while all these factors play a role in influencing privacy decisions, users are highly sensitive to the utility and coherence of the private output texts. Our findings highlight the socio-technical factors that must be considered in the study of DP NLP, opening the door to further user-based investigations going forward.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2503_09338
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Investigating User Perspectives on Differentially Private Text Privatization
Meisenbacher, Stephen
Klymenko, Alexandra
Karpp, Alexander
Matthes, Florian
Computation and Language
Human-Computer Interaction
Recent literature has seen a considerable uptick in $\textit{Differentially Private Natural Language Processing}$ (DP NLP). This includes DP text privatization, where potentially sensitive input texts are transformed under DP to achieve privatized output texts that ideally mask sensitive information $\textit{and}$ maintain original semantics. Despite continued work to address the open challenges in DP text privatization, there remains a scarcity of work addressing user perceptions of this technology, a crucial aspect which serves as the final barrier to practical adoption. In this work, we conduct a survey study with 721 laypersons around the globe, investigating how the factors of $\textit{scenario}$, $\textit{data sensitivity}$, $\textit{mechanism type}$, and $\textit{reason for data collection}$ impact user preferences for text privatization. We learn that while all these factors play a role in influencing privacy decisions, users are highly sensitive to the utility and coherence of the private output texts. Our findings highlight the socio-technical factors that must be considered in the study of DP NLP, opening the door to further user-based investigations going forward.
title Investigating User Perspectives on Differentially Private Text Privatization
topic Computation and Language
Human-Computer Interaction
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.09338