Anonymous reporting system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11409776-B2
Application number	US-202117508633-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 22, 2021
Priority date	Nov 5, 2002
Publication date	Aug 9, 2022
Grant date	Aug 9, 2022

Abstract

An anonymous reporting system for use in reporting and following up on incidents, accidents, and the like. The system may be accessed via an Internet website. A reporting individual may select a type of incident to report. In one example, the reporting individual may select a level on anonymity and some, none or all of the individual's personal identification is displayed to the organization according to the selected level.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
receiving a designation of authorized users from an organization;
receiving an assignment of a first set of the authorized users to a first notification level and a second set of the authorized users to a second notification level, wherein the assignment is specified by the organization;
receiving a type of incident from a reporting party via a reporting party computing device;
generating a graphical user interface based on the type of incident by configuring the graphical user interface with a report form comprising a plurality of fields requesting incident information relevant to the type of incident;
providing the graphical user interface for display via the reporting party computing device;
receiving, by computing hardware, an anonymity level of the reporting party and an incident report comprising the incident information originating from the graphical user interface, wherein the incident information comprises a description of an incident and a name of a subject person involved in the incident;
assigning, by the computing hardware, the incident report to the first notification level based on the type of incident; and
responsive to assigning the incident report to the first notification level, transmitting, by the computing hardware, a notification of the incident report to the first set of the authorized users.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving a second type of incident from a second reporting party via a second reporting party computing device;
generating a second graphical user interface based on the second type of incident by configuring the second graphical user interface with a second report form comprising a second plurality of fields requesting second incident information relevant to the second type of incident;
providing the second graphical user interface for display via the second reporting party computing device;
receiving, by the computing hardware, a second anonymity level of the second reporting party and a second incident report comprising the second incident information originating from the second graphical user interface, wherein the second incident information comprises a second description of a second incident and a second name of a second subject person involved in the second incident;
assigning, by the computing hardware, the second incident report to the second notification level based on the second type of incident; and
responsive to assigning the second incident report to the second notification level, transmitting, by the computing hardware, a second notification of the second incident report to the second set of the authorized users.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
generating, by the computing hardware, an access code, wherein the access code is provided to the reporting party to use in gaining access to the incident report.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
encrypting identifying information of the user to render the identifying information unintelligible while the user is providing the incident information via the graphical user interface; and
responsive to the user submitting the incident information via the graphical user interface, purging the identifying information.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
providing access to the incident report to the first set of the authorized users; and
denying access to the incident report to the second set of the authorized users.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the notification of the incident report comprises an email comprising a link to the incident report configured to allow access to the incident report to the first set of the authorized users.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the anonymity level comprises remaining completely anonymous and the incident report does not comprise identifying information of the reporting party.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the anonymity level comprises not being completely anonymous and the incident report comprises at least one of identifying information of the reporting party or contact information for the reporting party.

9. A system comprising:
a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions; and
a processing device communicatively coupled to the non-transitory computer-readable medium,
wherein, the processing device is configured to execute the instructions and thereby perform operations comprising:
receiving a type of incident from a reporting party via a reporting party computing device;
generating a graphical user interface based on the type of incident by configuring the graphical user interface with a report form comprising a plurality of fields requesting incident information relevant to the type of incident;
providing the graphical user interface for display via the reporting party computing device;
receiving content originating from the graphical user interface, wherein the content comprises a description of an incident and a name of a subject person involved in the incident;
generating an incident report using the content;
generating a random access number;
providing the random access number to the reporting party;
storing the incident report in a database;
routing a notification of the incident report to a subscriber computing device of a designated subscriber client using a fuzzy algorithm;
receiving a request to access the incident report from the designated subscriber client; and
responsive to receiving the request, providing access to the incident report via the subscriber computing device.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein the operations further comprise:
receiving a second request to access the incident report from the reporting party, wherein the second request comprises the random access number; and
responsive to receiving the second request, providing access to the incident report based on the random access number.

11. The system of claim 9 , wherein the fuzzy algorithm is configured to route the incident report using a portion of the content having typographical errors.

12. The system of claim 9 , wherein an anonymity level comprising remain completely anonymous is provided with the content and the incident report does not comprise identifying information of the reporting party.

13. The system of claim 9 , wherein an anonymity level comprising not remaining completely anonymous is provided with the content and the incident report comprises at least one of identifying information of the reporting party or contact information for the reporting party.

14. The system of claim 9 , wherein the graphical user interface is configured for use with a browser that is facilitated using a secure website having data encryption configured for encrypting the content transmitted using the browser.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having program code that is stored thereon, the program code executable by one or more processing devices for performing operations comprising:
receiving a type of incident from a reporting party via a reporting party computing device;
generating a graphical user interface based on the type of incident by configuring the graphical user interface with a report form comprising a plurality of fields requesting incident information relevant to the type of incident;
providing the graphical user interface for display via the reporting party computing device;
receiving an anonymity level of the reporting party and an incident report comprising the incident information originating from the graphical user interface, wherein the incident information comprises a description of an incident a

Assignees

• Onetrust Llc

Inventors

• Ferraro Eugene F
• Foster Steven
• Pfaff Kimberly L
• Persichetti Mary Eileen
• Palmer Briggin A

Classifications

• G06Q10/00

  Administration; Management · CPC title

• G06F21/6254

  by anonymising data, e.g. decorrelating personal data from the owner's identification · CPC title

• G06F40/14 Primary

  Tree-structured documents (parsing G06F40/205; validation G06F40/226) · CPC title

• G06F16/335 Primary

  Filtering based on additional data, e.g. user or group profiles (filtering in web context G06F16/9535, G06F16/9536) · CPC title

• G06Q10/10

  Office automation; Time management · CPC title