Mutual Information Bounds in the Shuffle Model

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2511.15051v1
• Date: Wed, 19 Nov 2025 02:44:59 GMT
• Title: Mutual Information Bounds in the Shuffle Model
• Authors: Pengcheng Su, Haibo Cheng, Ping Wang,
• Abstract summary: This paper presents the first systematic study of the single-message shuffle model from an information-theoretic perspective.<n>We analyze two regimes: the shuffle-only setting and the shuffle-DP setting.<n>For the shuffle-DP setting, we establish information-theoretic upper bounds on total information leakage.
• Score: 7.289625261239043
• License: http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/
• Abstract: The shuffle model enhances privacy by anonymizing users' reports through random permutation. This paper presents the first systematic study of the single-message shuffle model from an information-theoretic perspective. We analyze two regimes: the shuffle-only setting, where each user directly submits its message ($Y_i=X_i$), and the shuffle-DP setting, where each user first applies a local $\varepsilon_0$-differentially private mechanism before shuffling ($Y_i=\mathcal{R}(X_i)$). Let $\boldsymbol{Z} = (Y_{σ(i)})_i$ denote the shuffled sequence produced by a uniformly random permutation $σ$, and let $K = σ^{-1}(1)$ represent the position of user 1's message after shuffling. For the shuffle-only setting, we focus on a tractable yet expressive \emph{basic configuration}, where the target user's message follows $Y_1 \sim P$ and the remaining users' messages are i.i.d.\ samples from $Q$, i.e., $Y_2,\dots,Y_n \sim Q$. We derive asymptotic expressions for the mutual information quantities $I(Y_1;\boldsymbol{Z})$ and $I(K;\boldsymbol{Z})$ as $n \to \infty$, and demonstrate how this analytical framework naturally extends to settings with heterogeneous user distributions. For the shuffle-DP setting, we establish information-theoretic upper bounds on total information leakage. When each user applies an $\varepsilon_0$-DP mechanism, the overall leakage satisfies $I(K; \boldsymbol{Z}) \le 2\varepsilon_0$ and $I(X_1; \boldsymbol{Z}\mid (X_i)_{i=2}^n) \le (e^{\varepsilon_0}-1)/(2n) + O(n^{-3/2})$. These results bridge shuffle differential privacy and mutual-information-based privacy.

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