An Information-Flow Perspective on Algorithmic Fairness

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2312.10128v1
• Date: Fri, 15 Dec 2023 14:46:36 GMT
• Title: An Information-Flow Perspective on Algorithmic Fairness
• Authors: Samuel Teuber and Bernhard Beckert
• Abstract summary: This work presents insights gained by investigating the relationship between algorithmic fairness and the concept of secure information flow. We derive a new quantitative notion of fairness called fairness spread, which can be easily analyzed using quantitative information flow.
• Score: 0.951828574518325
• License: http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/
• Abstract: This work presents insights gained by investigating the relationship between algorithmic fairness and the concept of secure information flow. The problem of enforcing secure information flow is well-studied in the context of information security: If secret information may "flow" through an algorithm or program in such a way that it can influence the program's output, then that is considered insecure information flow as attackers could potentially observe (parts of) the secret. There is a strong correspondence between secure information flow and algorithmic fairness: if protected attributes such as race, gender, or age are treated as secret program inputs, then secure information flow means that these ``secret'' attributes cannot influence the result of a program. While most research in algorithmic fairness evaluation concentrates on studying the impact of algorithms (often treating the algorithm as a black-box), the concepts derived from information flow can be used both for the analysis of disparate treatment as well as disparate impact w.r.t. a structural causal model. In this paper, we examine the relationship between quantitative as well as qualitative information-flow properties and fairness. Moreover, based on this duality, we derive a new quantitative notion of fairness called fairness spread, which can be easily analyzed using quantitative information flow and which strongly relates to counterfactual fairness. We demonstrate that off-the-shelf tools for information-flow properties can be used in order to formally analyze a program's algorithmic fairness properties, including the new notion of fairness spread as well as established notions such as demographic parity.

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