Systems and methods to enhance privacy through decision tree based suppression rules on relational databases

A method for applying k-anonymity to an answer to a query sent to a relational database comprising:

• obtaining the query to the relational database, the relational database containing a plurality of records, each of the records having a plurality of attributes pertaining to a unique entity;
• determining a frequency of occurrence of the attributes in the relational database;
• creating an anonymization rule set based on the frequency of occurrence of the attributes, the anonymization rule set defining which attributes are to be suppressed in the answer to the query;
• generating the answer to the query using the anonymization rule set, wherein the answer to the query has k-anonymity;
• and
• controlling a display or other device based on the answer to the query.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors of a system, cause the system to perform operations comprising:

• obtaining a query made to a relational database, the relational database containing a plurality of records, each of the records having a plurality of attributes pertaining to a unique entity;
• determining a frequency of occurrence of the attributes in the relational database;
• creating an anonymization rule set based on the frequency of occurrence of the attributes, the anonymization rule set defining which attributes are to be suppressed in an answer to the query;
• generating the answer to the query using the anonymization rule set, wherein the answer to the query has k-anonymity;
• and
• controlling a display or other device based on the answer to the query.