Generating Differentially Private Synthetic Indoor Location Data Using GANs

Core Concepts

Differentially Private Generative Adversarial Networks (DPGANs) can generate synthetic indoor location data that is statistically similar to the original data while preserving the privacy of individuals.

Abstract

The paper introduces an indoor localization framework that employs DPGANs to generate privacy-preserving indoor location data. The key highlights are:

This is the first work that introduces DPGANs for generating private indoor location data for both location-based and zone-based indoor localization.

The proposed DPGAN framework not only preserves the privacy of indoor location data but also enhances the accuracy of localization.

The paper investigates the influence of two popular DPGANs, Differentially Private Wasserstein GAN (DPWGAN) and Differentially Private Conditional GAN (DPCGAN), on the similarity of the generated datasets to the original dataset, the localization accuracy, and the privacy preservation.

The efficiency and performance of the suggested DPGAN framework for indoor localization are verified through a real-world experimental testbed.

The paper first provides background on indoor fingerprinting localization, differential privacy, and GANs. It then introduces the proposed indoor location DPGAN framework, which consists of training a DPGAN on the original indoor location dataset, generating synthetic data, and using the synthetic data to train a localization model.
The utility evaluation shows that the synthetic data generated by DPWGAN preserves the feature correlations of the original data and achieves similar or better localization accuracy compared to the original data, especially when the number of synthetic samples is increased. The zone-based DPCGAN, on the other hand, shows lower accuracy compared to DPWGAN.
The privacy evaluation demonstrates that the generated synthetic data has a high average Euclidean distance from the original data points, indicating a low disclosure risk and effective privacy preservation.

Stats

The original indoor location dataset contains 384 records with 9 RSS values, (x,y) coordinates, and zone labels.

Quotes

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Key Insights Distilled From

Differentially Private GANs for Generating Synthetic Indoor Location Data

by Vahideh Mogh... at arxiv.org 04-12-2024

https://arxiv.org/pdf/2404.07366.pdf

Deeper Inquiries

How can the proposed DPGAN framework be extended to handle non-IID indoor location data distributions across users

To handle non-IID indoor location data distributions across users, the proposed DPGAN framework can be extended by incorporating techniques such as federated learning. Federated learning allows for model training across multiple decentralized devices or servers without exchanging raw data. In the context of indoor location data, this approach could involve training individual DPGAN models on data from different users or locations and then aggregating the models to generate synthetic data that captures the diversity of non-IID distributions. By leveraging federated learning, the framework can adapt to the varying data distributions across users while still maintaining privacy and utility.

What other privacy-preserving techniques, such as federated learning or differential privacy, could be combined with GANs to further enhance the privacy-utility tradeoff for indoor location data generation

In addition to differential privacy and federated learning, homomorphic encryption can be combined with GANs to further enhance the privacy-utility tradeoff for indoor location data generation. Homomorphic encryption allows computations to be performed on encrypted data without decrypting it, thereby preserving privacy during data processing. By integrating homomorphic encryption with GANs, the framework can ensure that sensitive location data remains encrypted throughout the data generation process, enhancing privacy protection. This combination can provide an additional layer of security and privacy assurance for indoor location data generation.

What are the potential applications of the generated synthetic indoor location data beyond indoor localization, such as in virtual reality or smart building simulations

The generated synthetic indoor location data has various potential applications beyond indoor localization. One application is in virtual reality simulations, where the synthetic data can be used to create realistic indoor environments for training and testing VR systems. By incorporating the synthetic location data into VR simulations, developers can enhance the accuracy and realism of virtual indoor spaces, improving user experiences and immersion. Additionally, the synthetic data can be utilized in smart building simulations to optimize building layouts, energy efficiency, and security measures. By simulating different scenarios based on the generated data, smart building systems can be fine-tuned for optimal performance and user comfort.