Privacy-Preserving Adaptation of Large Language Models: An Evidence Framework
Keywords:
large language models, differential privacy, federated learning, fine-tuning, governanceAbstract
This review examines privacy-preserving adaptation of large language models. The organizing question is how adaptation utility should be balanced against memorization, inference attacks, and data governance. Ten related scholarly sources are synthesized through a decision-centered framework spanning problem definition, mechanism, measurement, evaluation, implementation, and governance. The review does not invent experiments, pooled estimates, or unreported quantitative results. It instead evaluates the strength and transferability of the available evidence, with particular attention to reporting a privacy mechanism without measuring the end-to-end exposure surface. The resulting framework links technical or empirical performance to explicit use conditions and identifies tests that should precede wider adoption in domain adaptation using sensitive organizational or personal data.
References
- Agrawal, S., Sarkar, S., Aouedi, O., Yenduri, G., Piamrat, K., Alazab, M., Bhattacharya, S., Maddikunta, P. K. R., & Gadekallu, T. R. (2022). Federated Learning for intrusion detection system: Concepts, challenges and future directions. Computer Communications, 195, 346-361. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.comcom.2022.09.012
- Bouacida, N., & Mohapatra, P. (2021). Vulnerabilities in Federated Learning. IEEE Access, 9, 63229-63249. https://doi.org/10.1109/access.2021.3075203
- Ferrag, M. A., Ndhlovu, M., Tihanyi, N., Cordeiro, L. C., Debbah, M., Lestable, T., & Thandi, N. S. (2024). Revolutionizing Cyber Threat Detection With Large Language Models: A Privacy-Preserving BERT-Based Lightweight Model for IoT/IIoT Devices. IEEE Access, 12, 23733-23750. https://doi.org/10.1109/access.2024.3363469
- Gosselin, R., Vieu, L., Loukil, F., & Benoit, A. (2022). Privacy and Security in Federated Learning: A Survey. Applied Sciences, 12(19), 9901. https://doi.org/10.3390/app12199901
- Hallaji, E., Razavi-Far, R., Saif, M., Wang, B., & Yang, Q. (2024). Decentralized Federated Learning: A Survey on Security and Privacy. IEEE Transactions on Big Data, 10(2), 194-213. https://doi.org/10.1109/tbdata.2024.3362191
- Liu, B., Ding, M., Shaham, S., Rahayu, W., Farokhi, F., & Lin, Z. (2021). When Machine Learning Meets Privacy. ACM Computing Surveys, 54(2), 1-36. https://doi.org/10.1145/3436755
- Liu, X., Xie, L., Wang, Y., Zou, J., Xiong, J., Ying, Z., & Vasilakos, A. V. (2020). Privacy and Security Issues in Deep Learning: A Survey. IEEE Access, 9, 4566-4593. https://doi.org/10.1109/access.2020.3045078
- Wang, Q., Yin, H., Chen, T., Yu, J., Zhou, A., & Zhang, X. (2021). Fast-adapting and privacy-preserving federated recommender system. The VLDB Journal, 31(5), 877-896. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00778-021-00700-6
- Ye, M., Fang, X., Du, B., Yuen, P. C., & Tao, D. (2023). Heterogeneous Federated Learning: State-of-the-art and Research Challenges. ACM Computing Surveys, 56(3), 1-44. https://doi.org/10.1145/3625558
- Yin, X., Zhu, Y., & Hu, J. (2021). A Comprehensive Survey of Privacy-preserving Federated Learning. ACM Computing Surveys, 54(6), 1-36. https://doi.org/10.1145/3460427
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Machine Intelligence & Responsible Systems

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.