14 Jul Uber Reveals New Privacy Tool That Protects User Data
Uber has announced on Thursday that it has released a new differential open-source privacy tool that allows analysts to search large amounts of data without showing individual information included in the search.
The ride hailing company recognized the need to gather trip information in a more privacy-appropriate manner. They partnered with a group of security researchers from the University of California in Berkeley, coming up with a new calculation technique called Elastic Sensitivity , which was later released by Uber as an open-sourced tool.
The new tool improves differential privacy by making suggestions on how much noise to employ during searches. It is especially useful for queries that involve smaller cities, and zeroes in on useful data even in places with fewer recorded trips.
Moreover, the new tool preserves user privacy, ensuring that no other personal data comes up when analysts run their searches. This keeps the company from singling out user information.
Source: Gizmodo
