# PIVODL: Privacy-preserving vertical federated learning over distributed labels

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2108.11444 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2108.11444/

## Key facts

- Cited by 9 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 20 of its 47 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 25 Aug 2021.

## Builds on (most cited first, 20 of 20)

- [Communication-Efficient Learning of Deep Networks from Decentralized Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1602.05629/) (2016)
- [XGBoost: A Scalable Tree Boosting System](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1603.02754/) (2016)
- [Deep Learning with Differential Privacy](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1607.00133/) (2016)
- [Inverting Gradients -- How easy is it to break privacy in federated learning?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2003.14053/) (2020)
- [Federated Learning with Differential Privacy: Algorithms and Performance Analysis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1911.00222/) (2019)
- [Differentially Private Federated Learning: A Client Level Perspective](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1712.07557/) (2017)
- [Federated Learning on Non-IID Data: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.06843/) (2021)
- [A Hybrid Approach to Privacy-Preserving Federated Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.03224/) (2018)
- [Private federated learning on vertically partitioned data via entity resolution and additively homomorphic encryption](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1711.10677/) (2017)
- [SecureBoost: A Lossless Federated Learning Framework](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1901.08755/) (2019)
- [Privacy Preserving Vertical Federated Learning for Tree-based Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2008.06170/) (2020)
- [Parallel Distributed Logistic Regression for Vertical Federated Learning without Third-Party Coordinator](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1911.09824/) (2019)
- [HybridAlpha: An Efficient Approach for Privacy-Preserving Federated Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1912.05897/) (2019)
- [FederBoost: Private Federated Learning for GBDT](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.02796/) (2020)
- [Asymmetrical Vertical Federated Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.07427/) (2020)
- [Entity Resolution and Federated Learning get a Federated Resolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1803.04035/) (2018)
- [A Communication Efficient Collaborative Learning Framework for Distributed Features](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1912.11187/) (2019)
- [Gradient-Leaks: Understanding and Controlling Deanonymization in Federated Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1805.05838/) (2018)
- [Distributed Additive Encryption and Quantization for Privacy Preserving Federated Deep Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.12623/) (2020)
- [An End-to-End Encrypted Neural Network for Gradient Updates Transmission in Federated Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1908.08340/) (2019)

## Built on by (most cited first, 9 of 9)

- [A Survey on Vertical Federated Learning: From a Layered Perspective](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.01829/) (2023)
- [Vertical Federated Learning: A Structured Literature Review](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.00622/) (2022)
- [A Survey of Privacy Threats and Defense in Vertical Federated Learning: From Model Life Cycle Perspective](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.03688/) (2024)
- [Eliminating Label Leakage in Tree-Based Vertical Federated Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.10318/) (2023)
- [Communication-Efficient Hybrid Federated Learning for E-health with Horizontal and Vertical Data Partitioning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.10110/) (2024)
- [Federated and Transfer Learning for Cancer Detection Based on Image Analysis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.20126/) (2024)
- [MO-EMT-NAS: Multi-Objective Continuous Transfer of Architectural Knowledge Between Tasks from Different Datasets](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.13122/) (2024)
- [OPUS-VFL: Incentivizing Optimal Privacy-Utility Tradeoffs in Vertical Federated Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.15995/) (2025)
- [SoK: Enhancing Cryptographic Collaborative Learning with Differential Privacy](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.09460/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Federated learning (FL) is an emerging privacy preserving machine learning protocol that allows multiple devices to collaboratively train a shared global model without revealing their private local data. Non-parametric models like gradient boosting decision trees (GBDT) have been commonly used in FL for vertically partitioned data. However, all these studies assume that all the data labels are stored on only one client, which may be unrealistic for real-world applications. Therefore, in this work, we propose a secure vertical FL framework, named PIVODL, to train GBDT with data labels distributed on multiple devices. Both homomorphic encryption and differential privacy are adopted to prevent label information from being leaked through transmitted gradients and leaf values. Our experimental results show that both information leakage and model performance degradation of the proposed PIVODL are negligible.