Privacy-Preserving Data Sharing Platform

Overview

Privacy-preserving data sharing enables organizations to derive analytical value from combined datasets without exposing raw personal data. This skill covers four primary approaches: synthetic data generation, data clean rooms, secure enclaves, and federated analytics, along with utility measurement frameworks to ensure shared data remains useful.

Approach Selection Framework

Approach	Privacy Guarantee	Data Utility	Computational Cost	Trust Model
Synthetic Data	Statistical (configurable)	High for distributions, lower for edge cases	Medium (training)	No trust required
Data Clean Rooms	Contractual + technical	High (real data, restricted queries)	Low-Medium	Trusted operator
Secure Enclaves (TEE)	Hardware-backed isolation	Very high (real data)	Medium	Trust hardware vendor
Federated Analytics	Cryptographic/DP	Medium-High	High (communication)	Minimal trust
Homomorphic Encryption	Cryptographic	High	Very High	No trust required
Secure Multi-Party Computation	Cryptographic	High	High	Honest majority

Synthetic Data Generation with SDV

Architecture

Source Data --> Statistical Profiling --> Model Training --> Synthetic Generation
                    |                        |                      |
                    v                        v                      v
            Metadata Analysis        Model Selection         Quality Assessment
            - Column types           - GaussianCopula        - Statistical tests
            - Distributions          - CTGAN                 - Privacy metrics
            - Correlations           - CopulaGAN             - Utility metrics
            - Constraints            - TVAE                  - Visual comparison

SDV Implementation

"""
Synthetic data generation using the Synthetic Data Vault (SDV) library.
Generates privacy-preserving synthetic datasets that maintain statistical
properties of the original data.
"""

import pandas as pd
import numpy as np
from sdv.metadata import SingleTableMetadata
from sdv.single_table import GaussianCopulaSynthesizer, CTGANSynthesizer, TVAESynthesizer
from sdv.evaluation.single_table import run_diagnostic, evaluate_quality
from sdmetrics.reports.single_table import QualityReport


def create_metadata(df: pd.DataFrame) -> SingleTableMetadata:
    """Auto-detect and create metadata for a DataFrame."""
    metadata = SingleTableMetadata()
    metadata.detect_from_dataframe(df)
    return metadata


def train_gaussian_copula(
    df: pd.DataFrame,
    metadata: SingleTableMetadata,
    enforce_min_max: bool = True
) -> GaussianCopulaSynthesizer:
    """
    Train a Gaussian Copula model for synthetic data generation.
    Best for: Datasets with mostly numerical data and linear correlations.
    """
    synthesizer = GaussianCopulaSynthesizer(
        metadata,
        enforce_min_max_values=enforce_min_max,
        numerical_distributions={
            "norm": "beta",  # Fit beta distributions for bounded numerical data
        }
    )
    synthesizer.fit(df)
    return synthesizer


def train_ctgan(
    df: pd.DataFrame,
    metadata: SingleTableMetadata,
    epochs: int = 300,
    batch_size: int = 500
) -> CTGANSynthesizer:
    """
    Train a CTGAN model for synthetic data generation.
    Best for: Complex distributions, mixed data types, mode-specific patterns.
    """
    synthesizer = CTGANSynthesizer(
        metadata,
        epochs=epochs,
        batch_size=batch_size,
        verbose=True
    )
    synthesizer.fit(df)
    return synthesizer


def train_tvae(
    df: pd.DataFrame,
    metadata: SingleTableMetadata,
    epochs: int = 300
) -> TVAESynthesizer:
    """
    Train a TVAE model for synthetic data generation.
    Best for: Datasets where CTGAN struggles, faster training than CTGAN.
    """
    synthesizer = TVAESynthesizer(
        metadata,
        epochs=epochs
    )
    synthesizer.fit(df)
    return synthesizer


def generate_synthetic_data(
    synthesizer,
    num_rows: int
) -> pd.DataFrame:
    """Generate synthetic data from a trained synthesizer."""
    return synthesizer.sample(num_rows=num_rows)


def evaluate_synthetic_quality(
    real_data: pd.DataFrame,
    synthetic_data: pd.DataFrame,
    metadata: SingleTableMetadata
) -> dict:
    """
    Evaluate the quality of synthetic data against real data.

    Returns diagnostic and quality scores.
    """
    # Run diagnostic checks
    diagnostic = run_diagnostic(
        real_data=real_data,
        synthetic_data=synthetic_data,
        metadata=metadata
    )

    # Run quality evaluation
    quality = evaluate_quality(
        real_data=real_data,
        synthetic_data=synthetic_data,
        metadata=metadata
    )

    return {
        "diagnostic_score": diagnostic.get_score(),
        "quality_score": quality.get_score(),
    }


def measure_privacy_risk(
    real_data: pd.DataFrame,
    synthetic_data: pd.DataFrame,
    metadata: SingleTableMetadata,
    key_fields: list[str]
) -> dict:
    """
    Measure re-identification risk in synthetic data.

    Checks for exact matches and nearest-neighbor distances
    between real and synthetic records.
    """
    # Check for exact record matches
    merged = real_data.merge(synthetic_data, how="inner")
    exact_match_rate = len(merged) / len(real_data)

    # Check key field matches
    if key_fields:
        key_merged = real_data[key_fields].merge(
            synthetic_data[key_fields], how="inner"
        )
        key_match_rate = len(key_merged) / len(real_data)
    else:
        key_match_rate = 0.0

    return {
        "exact_match_rate": exact_match_rate,
        "key_match_rate": key_match_rate,
        "privacy_safe": exact_match_rate < 0.01 and key_match_rate < 0.05,
    }

Model Selection Guide

Factor	GaussianCopula	CTGAN	TVAE
Training speed	Fast (minutes)	Slow (hours)	Medium (30-60 min)
Small datasets (<1K rows)	Good	Poor	Fair
Large datasets (>100K rows)	Good	Good	Good
Numerical data	Excellent	Good	Good
Categorical data (high cardinality)	Fair	Good	Good
Complex correlations	Fair	Good	Good
Constraint handling	Good	Fair	Fair
Reproducibility	Excellent	Fair (seed-dependent)	Fair

Data Clean Room Architecture

Components

Organization A                    Clean Room                    Organization B
+-------------+    encrypted    +------------------+    encrypted    +-------------+
| Source Data  |  ----------->  | Ingestion Layer  |  <-----------  | Source Data  |
+-------------+                 +------------------+                 +-------------+
                                        |
                                        v
                                +------------------+
                                | Data Preparation |
                                | - Schema mapping |
                                | - Normalization  |
                                | - Deduplication  |
                                +------------------+
                                        |
                                        v
                                +------------------+
                                | Approved Queries |
                                | - Pre-approved   |
                                |   query templates|
                                | - Aggregate only |
                                | - Min group size |
                                +------------------+
                                        |
                                        v
                                +------------------+
                                | Output Validation|
                                | - k-anonymity    |
                                | - DP noise       |
                                | - Disclosure risk|
                                +------------------+
                                        |
                            +-----------+-----------+
                            |                       |
                            v                       v
                    Results for Org A        Results for Org B

Clean Room Policy Engine

"""
Policy engine for data clean room query validation.
Enforces privacy rules on all queries before execution.
"""

from dataclasses import dataclass


@dataclass
class CleanRoomPolicy:
    min_group_size: int = 50
    allowed_operations: list[str] = None
    blocked_columns: list[str] = None
    max_output_rows: int = 1000
    require_aggregation: bool = True
    dp_epsilon: float = 1.0

    def __post_init__(self):
        if self.allowed_operations is None:
            self.allowed_operations = ["COUNT", "SUM", "AVG", "MEDIAN", "PERCENTILE"]
        if self.blocked_columns is None:
            self.blocked_columns = ["ssn", "email", "phone", "full_name", "address"]


class QueryValidator:
    """Validate clean room queries against privacy policies."""

    def __init__(self, policy: CleanRoomPolicy):
        self.policy = policy

    def validate(self, query_ast: dict) -> tuple[bool, list[str]]:
        """
        Validate a parsed query against the policy.

        Returns (is_valid, list_of_violations).
        """
        violations = []

        # Check for blocked columns
        referenced_columns = query_ast.get("columns", [])
        for col in referenced_columns:
            if col.lower() in self.policy.blocked_columns:
                violations.append(f"Column '{col}' is blocked by policy")

        # Check aggregation requirement
        if self.policy.require_aggregation:
            if not query_ast.get("has_aggregation", False):
                violations.append("Query must include aggregation (no raw record output)")

        # Check operations
        operations = query_ast.get("operations", [])
        for op in operations:
            if op.upper() not in self.policy.allowed_operations:
                violations.append(f"Operation '{op}' is not in allowed operations list")

        # Check output size
        if query_ast.get("limit", float("inf")) > self.policy.max_output_rows:
            violations.append(
                f"Output exceeds max rows ({self.policy.max_output_rows})"
            )

        return (len(violations) == 0, violations)

Secure Enclave Integration

Intel SGX / Azure Confidential Computing

Data Owner A           Confidential Computing          Data Owner B
                       +----------------------+
Data (encrypted) ----> | Enclave Environment  | <---- Data (encrypted)
                       | - Decryption in TEE  |
                       | - Join/Analysis      |
                       | - Re-encrypt results |
                       +----------------------+
                               |
                       Encrypted Results
                       (only to authorized parties)

Key Properties

• Confidentiality: Data is encrypted outside the enclave; only decrypted within the TEE
• Integrity: Enclave code is measured and attested; tampering is detectable
• Attestation: Remote parties can verify the enclave is running approved code
• Isolation: Even the cloud provider cannot access data inside the enclave

Utility Measurement Framework

Statistical Utility Metrics

Metric	Description	Target
Column Shapes	Distribution similarity per column (KS test)	> 0.85
Column Pair Trends	Correlation preservation between column pairs	> 0.80
Boundary Adherence	Values within real data min/max ranges	> 0.95
Category Coverage	All categories in real data appear in synthetic	> 0.90
Range Coverage	Numeric ranges adequately represented	> 0.85

Privacy Metrics

Metric	Description	Target
Exact Match Rate	% of synthetic records identical to real records	< 1%
Nearest Neighbor Distance	Minimum distance from synthetic to nearest real record	> threshold
Membership Inference AUC	Ability of attack model to determine membership	< 0.55
Attribute Inference Accuracy	Ability to infer sensitive attributes	< random + 5%
k-Anonymity of output	Minimum equivalence class size	k >= 5

References

• Patki, N., Wedge, R., and Veeramachaneni, K. "The Synthetic Data Vault." IEEE DSAA, 2016.
• SDV Documentation: docs.sdv.dev
• Xu, L. et al. "Modeling Tabular Data Using Conditional GAN." NeurIPS, 2019.
• Google BigQuery Clean Rooms Documentation
• AWS Clean Rooms Service Documentation
• Microsoft Azure Confidential Computing Documentation
• Stadler, T. et al. "Synthetic Data — Anonymisation Groundhog Day." USENIX Security, 2022.