Skip to main content

Laplace Mechanism

Definition

The Laplace mechanism is a technique used in differential privacy to add calibrated random noise to query results, protecting individual data points. It injects noise drawn from a Laplace distribution into statistical outputs, ensuring that the presence or absence of any single individual’s data does not significantly affect the outcome. This mathematical guarantee allows for aggregate data analysis while preserving the privacy of individuals within the dataset. It is a fundamental tool for achieving privacy-preserving data publication and analysis.