Sona College of Technology (Autonomous), Salem -5.
Department of Computer Science and Engineering
U19AML905 – Data Privacy and Security
Assignment - I
Instructions:
1. Answer any 3 questions in detail.
2. Each question is of HOTS (Higher Order Thinking Skills) level.
3. Provide real-world examples wherever applicable.
4. Each assignment set carries 15 Marks in total.
Assignment Set 1
1. A multinational company is struggling to identify sensitive personal information across
its multiple regional databases. As a data privacy consultant, design a strategy for detecting
and classifying PII to ensure compliance with GDPR and CCPA.
(Mapped POs: PO2, PO3, PO6, PO8)
2. A university manages student data stored in different formats across several
departments. Propose a framework for documenting and consolidating this data while
maintaining lineage and transparency.
(Mapped POs: PO2, PO3, PO5, PO12)
3. A hospital plans to share anonymized medical records with research institutes. Analyze
whether k-anonymity alone would be sufficient or whether l-diversity/t-closeness would be
required, and justify your reasoning.
(Mapped POs: PO2, PO3, PO5, PO8)
4. An online retailer anonymizes customer purchase history using masking techniques.
Later, attackers combine external datasets to re-identify high-value customers. Recommend
a privacy-preserving mechanism that addresses such re-identification risks.
(Mapped POs: PO2, PO3, PO5, PO12)
5. Imagine you are building a compliance reporting tool for a government agency. Explain
how data version control and lineage tracking can be embedded to ensure data integrity,
privacy, and auditability.
(Mapped POs: PO2, PO3, PO5, PO12)
Assignment Set 2
1. A financial organization collects sensitive transaction records. Propose a comprehensive
data discovery and documentation strategy that ensures accuracy and supports
downstream anonymization.
(Mapped POs: PO2, PO3, PO5, PO6)
2. A large healthcare provider wants to anonymize genomic data for research. Evaluate
which anonymization model—k-anonymity, l-diversity, or differential privacy—would
provide the most protection without losing research value.
(Mapped POs: PO2, PO3, PO5, PO12)
3. An e-learning platform faces compliance challenges because it cannot track how data
moves between its modules. Suggest a method to implement data lineage tracking that
helps maintain both privacy and accountability.
(Mapped POs: PO2, PO3, PO5, PO12)
4. A government census bureau shares anonymized demographic datasets publicly.
However, re-identification is happening through linkage with voter records. Propose an
improved anonymization approach to prevent such breaches.
(Mapped POs: PO2, PO3, PO5, PO8)
5. A software firm is designing a system that documents unknown data scattered in logs and
temporary files. Recommend tools and techniques that can help ensure compliance while
minimizing overhead.
(Mapped POs: PO2, PO3, PO4, PO12)
Assignment Set 3
1. A telecom company stores customer call records and browsing data. Recommend a
framework to identify, classify, and securely document this sensitive information across
distributed systems.
(Mapped POs: PO2, PO3, PO5, PO6)
2. A startup applies anonymization to its customer data but fails to consider adversarial
attacks combining external sources. Critically assess this weakness and propose a hybrid
privacy model.
(Mapped POs: PO2, PO3, PO5, PO12)
3. A hospital research wing shares anonymized patient records with multiple labs. Some
labs argue that anonymization reduces data utility. Suggest a strategy that balances data
privacy with research usability.
(Mapped POs: PO2, PO3, PO6, PO12)
4. A data analytics company faces a challenge in tracking unknown datasets generated
dynamically by user behavior. Propose a real-time data discovery and lineage tracking
mechanism to address this issue.
(Mapped POs: PO2, PO3, PO5, PO12)
5. An online travel company wants to apply differential privacy to protect its customer
datasets. Evaluate how this can be applied during both data collection and data publishing,
highlighting the trade-offs.
(Mapped POs: PO2, PO3, PO5, PO12)
