# Secret-Keeping in Question Answering

Source: [Secret-Keeping in Question Answering](<https://www.sota2.com/research/paper/68fa6ec51e209131cea41f1a>)

Collection index: [llms.txt](<https://www.sota2.com/research/llms.txt>)

Data updated: 2025-10-26T01:05:49.615Z

Authors: Nathaniel W. Rollings, Kent O'Sullivan, Sakshum Kulshrestha

Published: 2023-03-16T03:56:17.000Z

## Abstract

Existing question-answering research focuses on unanswerable questions in the context of always providing an answer when a system can\\dots but what about cases where a system {\\bf should not} answer a question. This can either be to protect sensitive users or sensitive information. Many models expose sensitive information under interrogation by an adversarial user. We seek to determine if it is possible to teach a question-answering system to keep a specific fact secret. We design and implement a proof-of-concept architecture and through our evaluation determine that while possible, there are numerous directions for future research to reduce system paranoia (false positives), information leakage (false negatives) and extend the implementation of the work to more complex problems with preserving secrecy in the presence of information aggregation.

## Recorded benchmark results

A research result applies to its stated dataset, split, metric and evaluation configuration. Compare like-for-like settings, preserve the metric's unit and direction, and distinguish paper-reported results from independent reproduction. The best result recorded here is not a claim of exhaustive, current global coverage.

## Original sources and implementation

[Original paper](<https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.09067>)

[PDF](<https://arxiv.org/pdf/2303.09067.pdf>)