User-level privacy preservation for federated machine learning

Abstract

User-level privacy preservation is implemented within federated machine learning. An aggregation server may distribute a machine learning model to multiple users each including respective private datasets. Individual users may train the model using the local, private dataset to generate one or more parameter updates. Prior to sending the generated parameter updates to the aggregation server for incorporation into the machine learning model, a user may modify the parameter updates by applying respective noise values to individual ones of the parameter updates to ensure differential privacy for the dataset private to the user. The aggregation server may then receive the respective modified parameter updates from the multiple users and aggregate the updates into a single set of parameter updates to update the machine learning model. The federated machine learning may further include iteratively performing said sending, training, modifying, receiving, aggregating and updating steps.