CMSC 491 / 691 Data Privacy - Spring 2023
Lecture
MoWe 4:00-5:15p
Classroom: ITE 233
Instructor
Roberto Yus [ryus at umbc dot edu]
- Office: ITE 342
- Office Hours: MoWe 5:30-6:30p by appointment.
Teaching Assistants
- Aamir Hamid [ahamid2 at umbc dot edu]
Course Description
Data Protection can be viewed as the combination of Data Security, which focuses on protecting data from internal/external attackers, and Data Privacy, which focuses on governing how data is collected, shared, and used. This course examines the fundamentals of data privacy. In a world where ever-increasing amounts of information is captured about our daily lives, it is necessary for responsible computer scientists to take individuals' privacy into account throughout the whole engineering process. This course will discuss topics which include: history and fundamentals of data privacy, data privacy regulations, privacy-by-design, privacy enhancing technologies, privacy policies, differential privacy, cryptographic techniques (e.g., secure multi-party computation).
In addition to the instructor lectures, the course will involve presentations on the state of the art of different topics in the field by researchers from UMBC and other institutions.
Prerequisites: Students must have basic knowledge in algorithms, databases, and probability. Students also need to be proficient in programming for the group project.
Learning Objectives
- Understand challenges to individuals' privacy in data management
- Learn about techniques to perform data minimization
- Learn about different privacy enhancing techniques and algorithms
- Study examples of data privacy protection in contexts such as IoT and ML
- Experience what challenges researchers in the field are focusing on today
Deliverables and Grading
There are no exams. Semester grades will be based on the following components. The percentages are initial estimates and subject to change.
| What | Grade % | When |
|---|---|---|
| Class participation and presentation | 20% | throughout the course |
| Mini-critiques | 25% | roughly 6-8 in total |
| Project | 55% | group presentation at the end of the semester |
Grades will follow the standard scale: A = 89.5-100; B = 79.5-89.4; C = 69.5-79.4; D = 60-69.4; F<60. Curving is at the discretion of the professor.
More details here.
Course Policies
More details here.