IoT Event Data Privacy Budgeting With ID Anonymization
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Solution Overview
Problem
Distributed systems face challenges in protecting the privacy of data subjects across multiple IoT devices while reducing the cost of securing data for trusted applications.
Innovation Solution
An apparatus and method for privacy preservation that includes interface circuitry to read and generate a data stream, processing circuitry to update IDs using a deterministic function and add noise, and encryption to ensure privacy, while a computing system aggregates and manages privacy budgets for data transmission.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If data is collected from multiple IoT devices without anonymization, then data accuracy and completeness are improved, but privacy of data subjects deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by performing anonymization and noise addition on data before it leaves the peripheral device. The processing circuitry updates identifiers and adds statistical noise to event data in advance, ensuring privacy protection is built into the data collection process from the source rather than applied later as a separate step.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary mechanism through the use of updated identifiers (second IDs) that serve as mediators between the original personal identifiers and the data aggregator. These updated IDs allow data to be linked across devices for accurate measurement while preventing direct identification of data subjects by external parties.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If strong encryption and privacy measures are applied to all data, then privacy protection is improved, but computational cost and system complexity deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by implementing privacy protection measures selectively based on data type and context. Different processing approaches are used for identifiers (deterministic updating) versus event data (noise addition), and privacy budget is allocated locally to different data streams based on their sensitivity and requirements.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses parameter changes through the privacy budget mechanism, where the amount of noise added and the strength of privacy measures are dynamically adjusted based on predefined budgets. This allows the system to optimize between privacy protection and data utility by varying parameters like noise magnitude and update frequency rather than applying fixed strong encryption to all data.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If noise is added to event data for privacy protection, then privacy budget consumption increases, but data utility for statistical analysis decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies partial action by adding noise selectively to only the event data portion of the data stream while keeping identifier updates deterministic. This partial anonymization approach protects privacy for the sensitive event information while maintaining better data utility compared to fully anonymizing all data, achieving a balanced trade-off through selective application of noise.
Data Source
AI summary
An apparatus including interface circuitry configured to read, from a sensor, event data indicating an event detected by the sensor and identification data indicating a first identifier (ID) of a user involved in the event. The first interface circuitry is further configured to generate a data stream comprising at least the event data and the identification data. Additionally, the apparatus includes processing circuitry configured to generate an updated data stream based on the data stream by updating the first ID to a second ID using a deterministic update function, and by adding noise to at least the event data. The processing circuitry is further configured to determine whether sufficient privacy budget is left for the updated data stream, and, if so, generate encrypted data by encrypting the updated data stream. The apparatus includes second interface circuitry configured to output the encrypted data for transmission to an external data aggregator.