Privug: Using Probabilistic Programming for Quantifying Leakage in Privacy Risk Analysis

Abstract: Disclosure of data analytics results has important scientific and commercial justifications. However, no data shall be disclosed without a diligent investigation of risks for privacy of subjects. Privug is a tool-supported method to explore information leakage properties of data analytics and anonymization programs. In Privug, we reinterpret a program probabilistically, using off-the-shelf tools for Bayesian inference to perform information-theoretic analysis of the information flow. For privacy researchers, Privug provides a fast, lightweight way to experiment with privacy protection measures and mechanisms. We show that Privug is accurate, scalable, and applicable to a range of leakage analysis scenarios.