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Main Authors: Lange, Martin, Guerra-Balboa, Patricia, Parra-Arnau, Javier, Strufe, Thorsten
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.21308
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author Lange, Martin
Guerra-Balboa, Patricia
Parra-Arnau, Javier
Strufe, Thorsten
author_facet Lange, Martin
Guerra-Balboa, Patricia
Parra-Arnau, Javier
Strufe, Thorsten
contents Privacy risks in differentially private (DP) systems increase significantly when data is correlated, as standard DP metrics often underestimate the resulting privacy leakage, leaving sensitive information vulnerable. Given the ubiquity of dependencies in real-world databases, this oversight poses a critical challenge for privacy protections. Bayesian differential privacy (BDP) extends DP to account for these correlations, yet current BDP mechanisms indicate notable utility loss, limiting its adoption. In this work, we address whether BDP can be realistically implemented in common data structures without sacrificing utility -- a key factor for its applicability. By analyzing arbitrary and structured correlation models, including Gaussian multivariate distributions and Markov chains, we derive practical utility guarantees for BDP. Our contributions include theoretical links between DP and BDP and a novel methodology for adapting DP mechanisms to meet the BDP requirements. Through evaluations on real-world databases, we demonstrate that our novel theorems enable the design of BDP mechanisms that maintain competitive utility, paving the way for practical privacy-preserving data practices in correlated settings.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2506_21308
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Balancing Privacy and Utility in Correlated Data: A Study of Bayesian Differential Privacy
Lange, Martin
Guerra-Balboa, Patricia
Parra-Arnau, Javier
Strufe, Thorsten
Cryptography and Security
Information Theory
68P27
Privacy risks in differentially private (DP) systems increase significantly when data is correlated, as standard DP metrics often underestimate the resulting privacy leakage, leaving sensitive information vulnerable. Given the ubiquity of dependencies in real-world databases, this oversight poses a critical challenge for privacy protections. Bayesian differential privacy (BDP) extends DP to account for these correlations, yet current BDP mechanisms indicate notable utility loss, limiting its adoption. In this work, we address whether BDP can be realistically implemented in common data structures without sacrificing utility -- a key factor for its applicability. By analyzing arbitrary and structured correlation models, including Gaussian multivariate distributions and Markov chains, we derive practical utility guarantees for BDP. Our contributions include theoretical links between DP and BDP and a novel methodology for adapting DP mechanisms to meet the BDP requirements. Through evaluations on real-world databases, we demonstrate that our novel theorems enable the design of BDP mechanisms that maintain competitive utility, paving the way for practical privacy-preserving data practices in correlated settings.
title Balancing Privacy and Utility in Correlated Data: A Study of Bayesian Differential Privacy
topic Cryptography and Security
Information Theory
68P27
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.21308