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Abstract

With the widespread use of machine learning (ML) techniques, ML as a service
has become increasingly popular. In this setting, an ML model resides on a
server and users can query the model with their data via an API. However, if
the user's input is sensitive, sending it to the server is not an option.
Equally, the service provider does not want to share the model by sending it to
the client for protecting its intellectual property and pay-per-query business
model. In this paper, we propose MLCapsule, a guarded offline deployment of
machine learning as a service. MLCapsule executes the machine learning model
locally on the user's client and therefore the data never leaves the client.
Meanwhile, MLCapsule offers the service provider the same level of control and
security of its model as the commonly used server-side execution. In addition,
MLCapsule is applicable to offline applications that require local execution.
Beyond protecting against direct model access, we demonstrate that MLCapsule
allows for implementing defenses against advanced attacks on machine learning
models such as model stealing/reverse engineering and membership inference.