Privacy policy rating system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12346477-B2
Application number	US-202318482073-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 6, 2023
Priority date	Dec 9, 2014
Publication date	Jul 1, 2025
Grant date	Jul 1, 2025

Abstract

A system includes a processor and a memory accessible to the processor. The memory stores instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to determine a privacy policy score for one of an application and a website and provide the privacy policy score to a device.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by one or more processors, cause a user device to:
prompt a user of the user device for one or more survey responses for a survey, wherein the one or more survey responses comprise rankings of privacy policy characteristics in order of relative importance, wherein the privacy policy characteristics are related to at least one of data use practices, data collection practices, or opt out provisions of privacy policies;
receive the one or more survey responses from the user;
provide the one or more survey responses to a privacy policy analysis system for use in setting user preferences;
send a request for a privacy policy rating associated with one or both of a website and an application to the privacy policy analysis system;
receive the privacy policy rating, from the privacy policy analysis system, wherein the privacy policy rating is generated based on the user preferences and the relative importance of the privacy policy characteristics from the one or more survey responses of the user and of a plurality of other users that submitted responses to the survey;
present the privacy policy rating on a display of the user device, wherein the privacy policy rating provides a visual indication of privacy risks associated with the one or both of the website and the application;
determine that the privacy policy rating is below a predetermined threshold; and
perform a precautionary action based on determining that the privacy policy rating is below the predetermined threshold, wherein the precautionary action comprises one or both of blocking access to the one or both of the website and the application and providing an alert that the privacy policy rating is below the predetermined threshold.

2. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the instructions further cause the user device to:
receive an input from a user of the user device to adjust one or both of a size and a location of the privacy policy rating on the display.

3. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein:
the privacy policy rating comprises a learning algorithm-generated rating.

4. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the instructions further cause the user device to:
present one or more alternative sites that have higher privacy policy ratings.

5. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein:
the privacy policy rating is further generated based at least in part on weights that are derived from responses from the plurality of other uses that submitted responses to the survey.

Assignees

• Early Warning Services Llc

Inventors

• Cook Michael

Classifications

• H04L63/20

  for managing network security; network security policies in general (filtering policies H04L63/0227) · CPC title

• G06F16/951

  Indexing; Web crawling techniques · CPC title

• H04L63/1483

  service impersonation, e.g. phishing, pharming or web spoofing (detection of rogue wireless access points H04W12/12) · CPC title

• H04L63/04

  for providing a confidential data exchange among entities communicating through data packet networks · CPC title

• G06F21/6245 Primary

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