Towards Explainable Federated Learning: Understanding the Impact of Differential Privacy

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Oliveira, Júlio, Ferreira, Rodrigo, Riker, André, Carvalho, Glaucio H. S., Tsilopoulou, Eirini Eleni
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2026
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author Oliveira, Júlio
Ferreira, Rodrigo
Riker, André
Carvalho, Glaucio H. S.
Tsilopoulou, Eirini Eleni
author_facet Oliveira, Júlio
Ferreira, Rodrigo
Riker, André
Carvalho, Glaucio H. S.
Tsilopoulou, Eirini Eleni
contents Data privacy and eXplainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) are two important aspects for modern Machine Learning systems. To enhance data privacy, recent machine learning models have been designed as a Federated Learning (FL) system. On top of that, additional privacy layers can be added, via Differential Privacy (DP). On the other hand, to improve explainability, ML must consider more interpretable approaches with reduced number of features and less complex internal architecture. In this context, this paper aims to achieve a machine learning (ML) model that combines enhanced data privacy with explainability. So, we propose a FL solution, called Federated EXplainable Trees with Differential Privacy (FEXT-DP), that: (i) is based on Decision Trees, since they are lightweight and have superior explainability than neural networks-based FL systems; (ii) provides additional layer of data privacy protection applying Differential Privacy (DP) to the Tree-Based model. However, there is a side effect adding DP: it harms the explainability of the system. So, this paper also presents the impact of DP protection on the explainability of the ML model, analyzing the obtained results for SHAP (SHapley Additive exPlanations) and Mean Decrease in Impurity (MDI).
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2602_10100
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Towards Explainable Federated Learning: Understanding the Impact of Differential Privacy
Oliveira, Júlio
Ferreira, Rodrigo
Riker, André
Carvalho, Glaucio H. S.
Tsilopoulou, Eirini Eleni
Machine Learning
Cryptography and Security
Data privacy and eXplainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) are two important aspects for modern Machine Learning systems. To enhance data privacy, recent machine learning models have been designed as a Federated Learning (FL) system. On top of that, additional privacy layers can be added, via Differential Privacy (DP). On the other hand, to improve explainability, ML must consider more interpretable approaches with reduced number of features and less complex internal architecture. In this context, this paper aims to achieve a machine learning (ML) model that combines enhanced data privacy with explainability. So, we propose a FL solution, called Federated EXplainable Trees with Differential Privacy (FEXT-DP), that: (i) is based on Decision Trees, since they are lightweight and have superior explainability than neural networks-based FL systems; (ii) provides additional layer of data privacy protection applying Differential Privacy (DP) to the Tree-Based model. However, there is a side effect adding DP: it harms the explainability of the system. So, this paper also presents the impact of DP protection on the explainability of the ML model, analyzing the obtained results for SHAP (SHapley Additive exPlanations) and Mean Decrease in Impurity (MDI).
title Towards Explainable Federated Learning: Understanding the Impact of Differential Privacy
topic Machine Learning
Cryptography and Security
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.10100