US Patent 10552741 Computing smoothed posterior distribution of confidential data

In an example, a set of cohort types and an anonymized set of confidential data data values for a plurality of cohorts having cohort types in the set of cohort types are obtained. Then it is determined, from a set of candidate data transformations, a best fitting data transformation for the anonmyized set of confidential data data values. The anonymized set of confidential data data values is transformed using the best fitting data transformation. Optimal smoothing parameters are computed for each cohort type. Then, for each cohort in the set of cohort types having a small sample size, a best parent for the cohort is determined and a posterior distribution for the cohort is determined based on the best parent for the cohort and the optimal smoothing parameters for a cohort type for the cohort.