Topics API Analysis

DOI (v2.0): 10.5281/zenodo.11229402.

This repository provides the experimental results of the paper The Privacy-Utility Trade-off in the Topics API (DOI: 10.1145/3658644.3670368; arXiv: 2406.15309).

Usage

The notebooks were run using:

• Python v3.11.9
• bvmlib v1.0.0
• matplotlib 3.8.0
• numpy 1.24.3
• pandas 2.0.1
• qif 1.2.3
• requests 2.31.0
• scipy 1.11.3
• tldextract 5.1.2
• tqdm 4.66.1
• urllib3 1.26.16

Please note that qif, as of version 1.2.3, is not compatible with Apple Silicon processors. This is a known issue already reported on the module's GitHub repository: Support for M1 Mac.

The datasets produced for the experimental analyses can be found on Zenodo: AOL Dataset for Browsing History and Topics of Interest (DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.11229615).

Installation

For convenience, create a Python virtual environment before installing the required packages:

python3 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt

Data treatment

The data treatment notebooks are primarily for reference and were used to generate the AOL Dataset for Browsing History and Topics of Interest (DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.11229615) files.

To execute the analyses notebooks, please make sure to add to the folder data-treatment/ the respective files from the AOL Dataset for Browsing History and Topics of Interest (DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.11229615).

Analyses

To execute the analyses notebooks, please make sure to add to the folder analyses/ the respective files from the AOL Dataset for Browsing History and Topics of Interest (DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.11229615).

License

GNU GPLv3.

To understand how the various GNU licenses are compatible with each other, please refer to the GNU licenses FAQ.