Doesn't it also introduce noise into the dataset? It could modify rides at random, let's say that 10% of rides would have the start or end point swapped with some other ride or completely changed. That way the information in aggregate is still useful, but no one measurement is necessarily true and also you can not use the lack of a data point as a proof of anything.
> That way the information in aggregate is still useful, but no one measurement is necessarily true and also you can not use the lack of a data point as a proof of anything.
This is great, succinct, description of the goals of differential privacy.
> Doesn't it also introduce noise into the dataset? It could modify rides at random, let's say that 10% of rides would have the start or end point swapped with some other ride or completely changed.
It can. There are variants, and offline/online systems operate differently.
