Systems and methods for implementing a privacy firewall

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10897452-B2
Application number	US-201916403903-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 6, 2019
Priority date	Nov 26, 2014
Publication date	Jan 19, 2021
Grant date	Jan 19, 2021

Abstract

Systems and methods for protecting private data behind a privacy firewall are disclosed. A system for implementing a privacy firewall to determine and provide non-private information from private electronic data includes a data storage repository, a processing device, and a non-transitory, processor-readable storage medium. The storage medium includes programming instructions that, when executed, cause the processing device to analyze a corpus of private electronic data to identify a first one or more portions of the data having non-private information and a second one or more portions of the data having private information, tag the first one or more portions of the data as allowed for use, determine whether the second one or more portions of the data includes non-private elements, and if the second one or more portions of the data comprises non-private elements, extract the non-private elements and tag the non-private elements as information allowed for use.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system for implementing a privacy firewall to selectively restrict access to private electronic data, the system comprising:
a data storage repository comprising a corpus of the private electronic data located behind the privacy firewall, the corpus of the private electronic data comprising non-private information and private information;
a processing device; and
a non-transitory, processor-readable storage medium, wherein the non-transitory, processor-readable storage medium comprises one or more programming instructions that, when executed, cause the processing device to:
receive a query from a remote computer, the query comprising a request to access one or more portions of the corpus of private electronic data;
analyze the corpus of private electronic data behind the privacy firewall to identify the non-private information and the private information, the analyzing comprising:
determining whether the corpus of private electronic data was obtained from sources on an excluded list, and
if the corpus of private electronic data was obtained from sources on the excluded list, tag the corpus of private electronic data as denied for use outside the privacy firewall;

tag the non-private information as allowed for use outside the privacy firewall;
determine that the private information comprises non-private elements, wherein the non-private elements are portions of the private information or additional data that is derived from the private information that are not private;
extract the non-private elements from the private information, wherein a remainder of the private information is unextracted;
tag the non-private elements as information allowed for use outside the privacy firewall;
tag the unextracted elements as denied for use outside the privacy firewall; and
provide one or more of the non-private information and the non-private elements of the private information to the remote computer located outside of the privacy firewall.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more programming instructions that, when executed, cause the processing device to determine that the private information comprises non-private elements further cause the processing device to:
determine whether the private information comprises one or more elements that have appeared in other locations; and
if the one or more elements have appeared in other locations, tag the one or more elements as non-private elements.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more programming instructions that, when executed, cause the processing device to determine that the private information comprises non-private elements further cause the processing device to:
determine whether the private information comprises one or more elements that have appeared from a threshold number of distinct sources; and
if the one or more elements have appeared from at least the threshold number of distinct sources, tag the one or more elements as non-private elements.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more programming instructions that, when executed, cause the processing device to determine the private information comprises non-private elements further cause the processing device to:
determine whether the private information comprises one or more elements that contain information that is already public knowledge; and
if the one or more elements contain information that is already public knowledge, tag the one or more elements as non-private elements.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more programming instructions that, when executed, cause the processing device to determine that the private information comprises non-private elements further cause the processing device to:
determine whether the private information comprises one or more elements that are complex such that the one or elements are claimable as proprietary information; and
if the one or more elements are complex, tag the one or more elements as denied for use outside the privacy firewall.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more programming instructions that, when executed, cause the processing device to determine that the private information comprises non-private elements further cause the processing device to:
determine whether the private information comprises one or more sub-portions that have recognizable sequences; and
if the one or more sub-portions have recognizable sequences, tag the one or more sub-portions as denied for distribution outside the privacy firewall.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more programming instructions that, when executed, cause the processing device to determine that the private information comprises non-private elements further cause the processing device to:
determine whether the private information comprises one or more elements that have precise timestamps; and
if the one or more elements have precise timestamps, tag the one or more elements as denied for use outside the privacy firewall.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more programming instructions that, when executed, cause the processing device to determine that the private information comprises non-private elements further cause the processing device to:
determine whether the private information comprises one or more elements that have a geographic location that is below a granularity threshold; and
if the geographic location is below the granularity threshold:
tune the one or more elements to a geographic location above the granularity threshold, and
tag the one or more tuned elements as non-private elements.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more programming instructions that, when executed, cause the processing device to provide the one or more of the non-private information and the non-private elements of the private information to the remote computer further cause the processing device to:
provide a response to the query to a user via a user interface, wherein the response to the query contains information obtained from one or more of the non-private information and the non-private elements of the private information.

10. A method for implementing a privacy firewall to selectively restrict access to private electronic data, the method comprising:
receiving a query from a remote computer, the query comprising a request to access one or more portions of a corpus of private electronic data, the corpus of the private electronic data comprising non-private information and private information;
analyzing, by a processing device, the corpus of private electronic data to identify the non-private information and the private information, the analyzing comprising:
determining whether the corpus of private electronic data was obtained from sources on an excluded list, and
if the corpus of private electronic data was obtained from sources on the excluded list, tag the corpus of private electronic data as denied for use outside the privacy firewall;

tagging, by the processing device, the non-private information as allowed for use outside the privacy firewall;
determining, by the processing device, that the private information comprises non-private elements, wherein the non-private elements are portions of the private information or additional data that is derived from the private information that are not private;
extracting, by the processing device, the non-private elements from the private information, wherein a remainder of the private information is unextracted;
tagging, by the processing device, the non-private elements as information allowed for use outside the privacy firewall;
tagging, by the processing device, the unextracted elements as denied for use outside the privacy

Assignees

• Lexisnexis Division Of Reed Elsevier Inc
• Relx Inc

Inventors

• Kilgallon William

Classifications

• H04L63/101

  Access control lists [ACL] · CPC title

• H04L63/0245 Primary

  Filtering by information in the payload · CPC title

• G06F21/6245

  Protecting personal data, e.g. for financial or medical purposes · CPC title