How synthetic data protects privacy

Transcript

Imagine that you are using a new smartphone application that offers personalized services while keeping your private information completely safe. Synthetic data works like a shadow copy of real information—it is entirely computer generated yet mimics the statistical patterns of the real records. This means that companies can test and develop their systems without ever having to expose your personal details. For example, a hospital may create a set of artificial patient records that reflect the trends and characteristics of real patients without including any actual identities. This allows medical researchers to carry out studies and develop new diagnosis tools while ensuring the privacy of individuals is never compromised. Similarly, a bank might generate fake financial records that resemble actual transactions to train its fraud detection systems. By using strong mathematical techniques such as differential privacy during the creation process, even if someone tries to reverse engineer the data, they will not be able to trace it back to any real customer. In this way, artificial datasets give businesses a safe and flexible way to innovate while protecting the personal privacy of each individual.