English

Non-Stochastic Hypothesis Testing with Application to Privacy Against Hypothesis-Testing Adversary

Information Theory 2019-04-17 v1 Systems and Control Signal Processing math.IT Optimization and Control

Abstract

In this paper, we consider privacy against hypothesis testing adversaries within a non-stochastic framework. We develop a theory of non-stochastic hypothesis testing by borrowing the notion of uncertain variables from non-stochastic information theory. We define tests as binary-valued mappings on uncertain variables and prove a fundamental bound on the best performance of tests in non-stochastic hypothesis testing. We use this bound to develop a measure of privacy. We then construct reporting policies with prescribed privacy and utility guarantees. The utility of a reporting policy is measured by the distance between the reported and original values. We illustrate the effects of using such privacy-preserving reporting polices on a publicly-available practical dataset of preferences and demographics of young individuals, aged between 15-30, with Slovakian nationality.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1904.07377,
  title  = {Non-Stochastic Hypothesis Testing with Application to Privacy Against Hypothesis-Testing Adversary},
  author = {Farhad Farokhi},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1904.07377},
  year   = {2019}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-23T08:40:35.617Z