arxivcs.DScs.CRcs.LG2026-07-01
The Binary Tree Mechanism is Optimal for Approximate Differentially Private Continual Counting
Konstantina Bairaktari, Kasper Green Larsen
Private continual counting is a fundamental problem in differential privacy: given a binary stream of length $n$, where each $1$ corresponds to the contribution of one individual, the goal is to release all running counts while protecting the privacy of each individual. The stand…