A unified interpretation of the Gaussian mechanism for differential privacy through the sensitivity index

09/22/2021

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by   Georgios Kaissis, et al.

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The Gaussian mechanism (GM) represents a universally employed tool for achieving differential privacy (DP), and a large body of work has been devoted to its analysis. We argue that the three prevailing interpretations of the GM, namely (ε, δ)-DP, f-DP and Rényi DP can be expressed by using a single parameter ψ, which we term the sensitivity index. ψ uniquely characterises the GM and its properties by encapsulating its two fundamental quantities: the sensitivity of the query and the magnitude of the noise perturbation. With strong links to the ROC curve and the hypothesis-testing interpretation of DP, ψ offers the practitioner a powerful method for interpreting, comparing and communicating the privacy guarantees of Gaussian mechanisms.