System and method for data anonymization using optimization techniques

Abstract

This disclosure relates generally to data anonymization using clustering techniques. In Typically, data anonymization using global recoding can overgeneralize the data. However, preservation of information while anonymization the data is of equal importance as obscuring the relevant information that can be used by the attackers. The disclosed method and system utilized attribute taxonomy tree for generalization to optimize the generalization of the records. The disclosed method uses clustering-based approach and after clustering, each cluster is solved independently using ILP model for K-Anonymization. The ILP model is solved by generalizing the value of the attributes. Sometimes, even after clustering the number of possible patterns is large, thus the disclosed method generates patterns on the fly during multiple iterations.