Diffix Elm: Simple Diffix

TL;DR

Diffix Elm is an easy-to-use data anonymization framework that offers strong privacy guarantees aligned with GDPR, simplifying the process for non-experts by reducing query complexity and enhancing protection features.

Contribution

This paper introduces Diffix Elm, a simplified version of Diffix that protects multiple entity types and supports counting distinct values, improving usability and privacy assurance.

Findings

Provides strong GDPR-based anonymity

Supports protection of multiple entity types

Enables counting distinct column values

Abstract

Historically, strong data anonymization requires substantial domain expertise and custom design for the given data set and use case. Diffix is an anonymization framework designed to make strong data anonymization available to non-experts. This paper describes Diffix Elm, a version of Diffix that is very easy to use at the expense of query features. We describe Diffix Elm, and show that it provides strong anonymity based on the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) criteria. This document is the third version of Diffix Elm. The second version added ceiling, round, and bucket\_width functions (in addition to floor). This document adds the ability to protect multiple different kinds of protected entities (a feature not found in earlier versions of Diffix). It also adds counting distinct values for any column (rather than only the AID column).