Workshop on Defining Holistic Private Data Science for Practice

January 8-10, 2025

UC San Diego

This workshop will focus on identifying viable paths towards reducing the gap between theoretical developments and practical applications of privacy-preserving tools in data science. Despite extensive research into privacy-preserving tools, such as differential privacy and multiparty computation, the translation of these tools into practice and real-world use remains limited.

Over the course of the three days, through a mix of presentations and targeted discussion groups, participants will delve into solutions for how novel privacy-enhancing technologies can be effectively translated to applications in real-world scenarios. We partition the problem space into four themes throughout the workshop. These themes are (1) understanding privacy needs in a range of practical contexts, (2) characterising the various costs of imposing privacy constraints on data science operations, (3) designing methods/benchmarks for evaluating the effectiveness of privacy-preserving solutions, and (4) developing strategies for communicating the above to key stakeholders.

Participants: Sebastian Benthall (New York University), Mark Bun (Boston University), Clément Canonne (University of Sydney), Aloni Cohen (University of Chicago), Shaanan Cohney (University of Melbourne), Rachel Cummings (Columbia University), Yaw Etse (Capital One), Talia Gillis (Columbia University), Mahdi Haghifam (Northeastern University), Yaxi Hu (Max Planck Insitute for Intelligent Systems), Palak Jain (Boston University), Bailey Kacsmar (University of Alberta), Gabriel Kaptchuk (University of Maryland), Gautam Kamath (University of Waterloo), Oliver Kosut (Arizona State University), Benjamin Laufer (Cornell Tech), Tamalika Mukherjee (Columbia University), Priyanka Nanayakkara (Harvard University), Simon Oya (University of British Columbia), Amartya Sanyal (University of Copenhagen), Jayshree Sarathy (Northeastern University), Jeremy Seeman (Urban Institute), Masoumeh Shafieinejad (Vector Institute), Kris Shrishak (Irish Council for Civil Liberties), Reza Shokri (National University of Singapore), Satchit Sivakumar (Boston University), Adam Smith (Boston University), Stephanie Straus (Georgetown University), Jon Ullman (Northeastern University), Sergei Vassilvitskii (Google), Lydia Zakynthinou (University of California, Berkeley), Wanrong Zhang (Harvard University)

Speakers

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Shaanan Cohney
University of Melbourne
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Aloni Cohen
University of Chicago
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Gabriel Kaptchuk
The University of Maryland, College Park
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Tamalika Mukherjee
Columbia University
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Priyanka Nanayakkara
Harvard University
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Reza Shokri
National University of Singapore
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Adam Smith
Boston University
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Stephanie Straus
Georgetown University
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Jonathan Ullman
Northeastern University
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Wanrong Zhang
Harvard University

Program

9:00 - 9:30 Breakfast, Check-in, and Opening Remarks
Topic 1: Defining appropriate technical privacy notions for practice
9:30 - 9:40 Introduction to Topic 1 Organizer
9:40 - 10:00 Short talk 1 Shaanan Cohney
10:00 - 10:20 Short talk 2 Sergei Vassilvitskii
10:20 - 10:40 Short talk 3 Adam Smith
10:40 - 11:00 Coffee Break
11:00 - 11:50 Breakout discussion session
11:50 - 12:20 Shareback Session
12:20 - 1:30 Lunch
Topic 2: Classifying the types and size of costs associated with private data analysis
1:30 - 1:40 Introduction to Topic 2 Organizer
1:40 - 2:00 Short talk 1 Wanrong Zhang
2:00 - 2:20 Short talk 2 Lydia Zakynthinou
2:00 - 2:20 Short talk 3 Tamalika Mukherjee
2:40 - 3:30 Breakout session
3:30 - 4:00 Shareback Session
Topic 3: Defining and designing metrics for evaluating the effectiveness of private data analysis
9:30 - 9:40 Introduction to Topic 3 Organizer
9:40 - 10:00 Short talk 1 Gabriel Kaptchuk
10:00 - 10:20 Short talk 2 Jon Ullman
10:20 - 10:40 Short talk 3 Reza Shokri
10:40 - 11:00 Coffee Break
11:00 - 11:50 Breakout session
11:50 - 12:20 Shareback Session
12:20 - 1:30 Lunch
1:30 - Social event
Topic 4: Identifying adaptable communication practices to all relevant stakeholders
9:30 - 9:40 Introduction to Topic 4 Organizer
9:40 - 10:00 Short talk 1 Priyanka Nanayakkara
10:00 - 10:20 Short talk 2 Aloni Cohen
10:20 - 10:40 Short talk 3 Stephanie Straus
10:40 - 11:00 Coffee Break
11:00 - 11:50 Breakout session
11:50 - 12:20 Shareback Session
12:20 - 1:30 Lunch
1:30 - 3:30 Lightning Talks and Open Problems
3:00 - 4:00 Next steps and wrap-up

Organizers

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Clément Canonne
The University of Sydney
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Rachel Cummings
Columbia University
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Bailey Kacsmar
University of Alberta
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Amartya Sanyal
University of Copenhagen

Sponsors