Advances in microelectronics and the evolution of IoHT devices allow the collection and, consequently, generation of a greater volume of health data, intensifying the need for robust data privacy solutions. Traditionalk-anonymity-based anonymization techniques often suffer from high information loss, especially as the anonymity parameter k increases. To address these challenges, this article proposes Generalization Firstk-Member Clustering (GFKMC), a novelk-anonymity method that applies early generalization to quasi-identifiers, reducing computational overhead and minimizing information loss. Unlike traditional methods (e.g., Mondrian, Top-Down Greedy (TDG), and Clustering-Based (CB)), GFKMC maintains nearly constant information loss (≈ 25%) across varyingkvalues and better preserves machine learning model performance, especially in lowkscenarios. Empirical evaluations demonstrate that GFKMC outperforms baseline methods by significantly minimizing the trade-off between data utility and privacy. Moreover, GFKMC preserves the performance of machine learning models more effectively.

The increasing volume of sensitive data generated by various domains demands robust approaches to privacy protection. Anonymization based on k-anonymity stands out for mitigating the risks of re-identification of personal data. However, the impact on the performance of machine learning models is commonly neglected. This work proposes a novel comparative method to evaluate the effects of anonymization on the performance of machine learning models, considering privacy, information loss, and performance metrics. The empirical results show how generalization based on k-anonymity impacts federated learning solutions and provides insights for developing and improving methods that reconcile data privacy and efficiency.

Technological advances enable the integration of Internet of Things (IoT) devices to perform continuous and proactive patient monitoring. These devices collect a large volume of sensitive data that requires privacy. Anonymization provides privacy by removing or modifying information that identifies an individual. However, traditional anonymization techniques, such as k-anonymity, depend on a fixed and pre-defined k value, susceptible to attribute disclosure attacks. This article presents Dynamic Anonymization by Separatrices (DAS), an approach for defining the ideal value k and for dynamic grouping of data to be anonymized using separatrices measurements. Results show that the proposed approach efficiently mitigates attribute disclosure attacks.