Equity and Privacy: more than just a tradeoff

Summary:

Much of the research into privacy preserving data analytics is focused on the tradeoff between privacy and utility/accuracy. However, recent work has shown that privacy preserving data publishing can introduce different levels of utility across different population groups. It is important to understand this new tradeoff between privacy and equity as privacy technology is being deployed in situations where the data products will be used for high stakes research and policy making. Will marginalized populations see disproportionately less utility from privacy technology? If there is an inequity how can we address it? In this article, Tumult Labs' Chief Scientist, Ashwin Machanavajjhala, examines this new privacy-equity tradeoff.