Publishing Below-Threshold Triangle Counts under Local Weight Differential Privacy

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Pfisterer, Kevin, Hillebrand, Quentin, Suppakitpaisarn, Vorapong
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2026
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author Pfisterer, Kevin
Hillebrand, Quentin
Suppakitpaisarn, Vorapong
author_facet Pfisterer, Kevin
Hillebrand, Quentin
Suppakitpaisarn, Vorapong
contents We propose an algorithm for counting below-threshold triangles in weighted graphs under local weight differential privacy. While prior work has largely focused on unweighted graphs, edge weights are intrinsic to many real-world networks. We consider the setting in which the graph topology is publicly known and privacy is required only for the contribution of an individual to incident edge weights, capturing practical scenarios such as road and telecommunication networks. Our method uses two rounds of communication. In the first round, each node releases privatized information about its incident edge weights under local weight differential privacy. In the second round, nodes locally count below-threshold triangles using this privatized information; we introduce both biased and unbiased variants of the estimator. We further develop two refinements: (i) a pre-computation step that reduces covariance and thus lowers expected error, and (ii) an efficient procedure for computing smooth sensitivity, which substantially reduces running time relative to a straightforward implementation. Finally, we present experimental results that quantify the trade-offs between the biased and unbiased variants and demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed improvements.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_01710
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Publishing Below-Threshold Triangle Counts under Local Weight Differential Privacy
Pfisterer, Kevin
Hillebrand, Quentin
Suppakitpaisarn, Vorapong
Data Structures and Algorithms
We propose an algorithm for counting below-threshold triangles in weighted graphs under local weight differential privacy. While prior work has largely focused on unweighted graphs, edge weights are intrinsic to many real-world networks. We consider the setting in which the graph topology is publicly known and privacy is required only for the contribution of an individual to incident edge weights, capturing practical scenarios such as road and telecommunication networks. Our method uses two rounds of communication. In the first round, each node releases privatized information about its incident edge weights under local weight differential privacy. In the second round, nodes locally count below-threshold triangles using this privatized information; we introduce both biased and unbiased variants of the estimator. We further develop two refinements: (i) a pre-computation step that reduces covariance and thus lowers expected error, and (ii) an efficient procedure for computing smooth sensitivity, which substantially reduces running time relative to a straightforward implementation. Finally, we present experimental results that quantify the trade-offs between the biased and unbiased variants and demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed improvements.
title Publishing Below-Threshold Triangle Counts under Local Weight Differential Privacy
topic Data Structures and Algorithms
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.01710