Bayesian Estimation of Attribute Disclosure Risks in Synthetic Data with the $\texttt{AttributeRiskCalculation}$ R Package

Abstract

Synthetic data is a promising approach to privacy protection in many contexts. A Bayesian synthesis model, also known as a synthesizer, simulates synthetic values of sensitive variables from their posterior predictive distributions. The resulting synthetic data can then be released in place of the confidential data. An important evaluation prior to synthetic data release is its level of privacy protection, which is often in the form of disclosure risks evaluation. Attribute disclosure, referring to an intruder correctly inferring the confidential values of synthetic records, is one type of disclosure that is challenging to be computationally evaluated. In this paper, we review and discuss in detail some Bayesian estimation approaches to attribute disclosure risks evaluation, with examples of commonly-used Bayesian synthesizers. We create the $\texttt{AttributeRiskCalculation}$ R package to facilitate its implementation, and demonstrate its functionality with examples of evaluating attribute disclosure risks in synthetic samples of the Consumer Expenditure Surveys.