On the Mutual Information of Two Boolean Functions, with Application to Privacy

We investigate the behavior of the mutual information between two Boolean functions of correlated binary strings. The covariance of these functions is found to be a crucial parameter in the aforementioned mutual information. We then apply this result in the analysis of a specific privacy problem where a user observes a random binary string. Under particular conditions, we characterize the optimal strategy for communicating the outcomes of a function of said string while preventing to leak any information about a different function.

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