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The proliferation of platforms such as e-commerceand social networks has led to an increasing amount of personal health information being disclosed in user-generated content.This study investigates the use of Large Language Models (LLMs) to detect and sanitize sensitive health data disclosures in reviews posted on Amazon. Specifically, we present an approach that uses ChatGPT to evaluate both the sensitivity and informativeness of Amazon reviews. The approach uses prompt engineering to identify sensitive content and rephrase reviews to reduce sensitive disclosures while maintaining informativeness. Empirical results indicate that ChatGPT is capable of reliably assigning sensitivity scores and informativeness scores to user-generated reviews and can be used to generate sanitized reviews that remain informative.
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This content will become publicly available on June 1, 2026
Applying large language models to sanitize self-disclosure in user-generated content
The rise of e-commerce and social networking platforms has led to an increase in the disclosure of personal health information within user-generated content. This study investigates the application of large language models (LLMs) to detect and sanitize sensitive health data shared by users across platforms such as Amazon, patient.info, and Facebook. We propose a methodology that leverages LLMs to evaluate both the sensitivity of disclosed information and the platform-specific semantics of the content. Through prompt engineering, our method identifies sensitive information and rephrases it to minimize disclosure while preserving content similarity. ChatGPT serves as the LLM in this study due to its versatility. Empirical results suggest that ChatGPT can reliably assign sensitivity scores to user-generated text and generate sanitized versions that effectively preserve the original meaning.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1914486
- PAR ID:
- 10598513
- Publisher / Repository:
- Applied Soft Computing, Elsevier
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Applied Soft Computing
- ISSN:
- 1568-4946
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 113311
- Subject(s) / Keyword(s):
- LLMs Sanitizing Self-disclosure Sensitivity detection Privacy Privacy enhancing technologie ChatGPT
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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