Controllable Quantum Computing Privacy via Inherent Noises and Quantum Error Mitigation

Quantum computing has revolutionized the approach to solving complex problems and handling vast datasets. However, data leakage in quantum computing may present privacy risks. While differential privacy (DP) has been a classical solution to protect privacy by injecting artificial noises, the implementation of DP within the quantum domain remains an under-explored area. We observe that there is a potential to leverage the inherent noises generated by Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum (NISQ) devices during quantum operations for achieving DP in quantum computing. Given that these inherent noises are uncontrollable, we take the lead to utilize quantum error mitigation (QEM) techniques to manage quantum differential privacy (QDP) protection levels. In our approach, we offer a tangible description of the "closeness" between neighboring quantum datasets and introduce a novel QDP definition based on observables of interest. Our simulations reveal that factors like the distance between neighboring quantum states and the number of circuit executions influence the privacy budget. Notably, by controlling the QEM samples while keeping the number of circuit executions fixed, QEM allows for substantial noise control to meet a desired privacy budget. Furthermore, we extend analysis from single-qubit to multiple qubits and discuss the impact of observables of interest on the privacy budget.