Utility-Driven k-Anonymization of Public Transport User Data

In this article, we propose a k-anonymity approach that prioritizes the generalization of attributes based on their utility. We focus on transport data, which we consider a special case in which many or all attributes are quasi-identifiers (e.g., origin, destination, ride start time), as they allow correlation with easily observable auxiliary data. The novelty in our approach lies in introducing normalization techniques as well as distance and utility metrics that allow the consideration of not only numerical attributes but also categorical attributes by representing them in tree or graph form. The prioritization of the attributes in the generalization process is based on the attributes' utility and can further be influenced by either automatically or manually assigned attribute weights. We evaluate and compare different options for all components of our mechanism as well as present an extensive performance evaluation of our approach using real-world data. Lastly, we show in which cases suppression of records can counter-intuitively lead to higher data utility.

Automated summary

The article introduces a k-anonymity approach that prioritizes attribute generalization based on their utility, focusing on transportation data. The approach incorporates normalization techniques, distance and utility metrics, and considers numerical and categorical attributes. Evaluation with real-world data shows the importance of considering attribute utility in generalization and how suppression of records can impact data utility unexpectedly.