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A transversal hypergraph approach for the frequent itemset hiding problem

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Abstract

We propose a methodology for hiding all sensitive frequent itemsets in a transaction database. Our methodology relies on a novel technique that enumerates the minimal transversals of a hypergraph in order to induce the ideal border between frequent and sensitive itemsets. The ideal border is then utilized to formulate an integer linear program (ILP) that answers whether a feasible sanitized database that attains the ideal border, exists. The solution of the program identifies the set of transactions that need to be modified (sanitized) so that the hiding can be achieved with the maximum accuracy. If no solution exists, we modify the ILP by relaxing the constraints needed to be satisfied so that the sanitized database preserves the privacy with guarantee but with minimum effect in data quality. Experimental evaluation of the proposed approach on a number of real datasets has shown that the produced sanitized databases exhibit higher accuracy when compared with the solutions of other well-known approaches.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank the anonymous referees for their valuable comments that improved the final presentation of the paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Educational Content, Methodology and Technology Laboratory, Hellenic Open University, 278, Patron Claus Str., 263 35, Patras, Greece

    Elias C. Stavropoulos, Vassilios S. Verykios & Vasileios Kagklis

  2. Business Administration Department, Technological Educational Institute of Western Greece, 263 34, Patras, Greece

    Elias C. Stavropoulos

  3. School of Science and Technology, Hellenic Open University, 263 35, Patras, Greece

    Vassilios S. Verykios

  4. Computer Engineering and Informatics Department, University of Patras, 265 04, Patras, Greece

    Vasileios Kagklis

Authors
  1. Elias C. Stavropoulos
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  2. Vassilios S. Verykios
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  3. Vasileios Kagklis
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Correspondence to Elias C. Stavropoulos.

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Stavropoulos, E.C., Verykios, V.S. & Kagklis, V. A transversal hypergraph approach for the frequent itemset hiding problem. Knowl Inf Syst 47, 625–645 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10115-015-0862-3

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