Mutual Information Bounds in the Shuffle Model

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 $\boldsymbol{Z} = (Y_{\sigma(i)})_i$ denote the shuffled sequence produced by a uniformly random permutation $\sigma$, and let $K = \sigma^{-1}(1)$ 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.