Federated learning for privacy-preserving data analytics in mobile applications

Okolo, Joy Nnenna and Arowogbadamu, Adesola Abdul-Gafar and Adeniji, Samuel A and Tasie, Rhoda Kalu (2025) Federated learning for privacy-preserving data analytics in mobile applications. World Journal of Advanced Research and Reviews, 26 (1). pp. 1220-1232. ISSN 2581-9615

The rapid adoption of mobile AI applications in areas such as healthcare, finance, and personalized services has raised significant concerns about data privacy and security. Traditional centralized machine learning (ML) models require mobile devices to transmit user data to cloud servers, posing risks of data breaches and regulatory non-compliance. Federated learning (FL) addresses these concerns by allowing decentralized AI model training directly on user devices, ensuring that raw data remains private and never leaves the device. However, FL faces security vulnerabilities and performance limitations, including model inversion attacks, data poisoning risks, and high computational overhead. This paper explores key privacy-preserving techniques such as differential privacy, secure aggregation, and homomorphic encryption, which enhance FL security while maintaining model accuracy. Additionally, emerging trends such as blockchain-integrated FL, post-quantum cryptography, and AI-driven optimization are analyzed to highlight the future of privacy-preserving mobile AI ecosystems. By integrating advanced cryptographic techniques and decentralized verification mechanisms, FL can enable scalable, secure, and regulation-compliant AI applications, ensuring a balance between data privacy and AI innovation.