Federated Graph Unlearning

Abstract

The demand for data privacy has led to the development of frameworks like Federated Graph Learning (FGL), which facilitate decentralized model training. However, a significant operational challenge in such systems is adhering to the right to be forgotten. This principle necessitates robust mechanisms for two distinct types of data removal: the selective erasure of specific entities and their associated knowledge from local subgraphs and the wholesale removal of a user's entire dataset and influence. Existing methods often struggle to fully address both unlearning requirements, frequently resulting in incomplete data removal or the persistence of residual knowledge within the system. This work introduces a unified framework, conceived to provide a comprehensive solution to these challenges. The proposed framework employs a bifurcated strategy tailored to the specific unlearning request. For fine-grained Meta Unlearning, it uses prototype gradients to direct the initial local forgetting process, which is then refined by generating adversarial graphs to eliminate any remaining data traces among affected clients. In the case of complete client unlearning, the framework utilizes adversarial graph generation exclusively to purge the departed client's contributions from the remaining network. Extensive experiments on multiple benchmark datasets validate the proposed approach. The framework achieves substantial improvements in model prediction accuracy across both client and meta-unlearning scenarios when compared to existing methods. Furthermore, additional studies confirm its utility as a plug-in module, where it materially enhances the predictive capabilities and unlearning effectiveness of other established methods.