Crowdsourcing of trustworthiness indicators

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9747640-B1
Application number	US-201715406405-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Jan 13, 2017
Priority date	Feb 29, 2016
Publication date	Aug 29, 2017
Grant date	Aug 29, 2017

Abstract

Systems and methods are described herein for calculating trust score based on crowdsourced information. The trust score may reflect the trustworthiness, reputation, membership, status, and/or influence of an entity in a particular community or in relation to another entity. The trust score may be calculated based on data received from a variety of public and private data sources, including “crowdsourced” information. For example, users may provide and/or comment on attributes, characteristics, features, or any other information about another user. These inputs may serve to both validate the available data as well as provide additional information about the user that may not be otherwise available. The participation of the “crowd” may form a type of validation in itself and give comfort to second-order users, who know that the crowd can spectate and make contributions to the attributes, characteristics, features, and other information.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for calculating a trust score, the method comprising:
retrieving, from a first database using processing circuitry, first data associated with a first entity in a computer network;
calculating a first component score based on the first data;
retrieving, from a second database using the processing circuitry, second data associated with the first entity;
calculating a second component score based on the second data;
calculating a weighted combination of the first component score and the second component score to produce a trust score for the first entity;
receiving, from a user device of a second entity in the computer network, data indicating an attribute associated with the first entity;
recalculating the first component score based on the first data and the received data indicating the attribute associated with the first entity;
updating the trust score for the first entity by calculating a weighted combination of the recalculated first component score and the second component score;
wherein receiving, from the user device of the second entity, the data indicating an attribute associated with the first entity comprises receiving an indication of a user input from the second entity that validates the first data; and
wherein recalculating the first component score based on the first data and the received data indicating the attribute associated with the first entity comprises increasing or decreasing the first component score by a predetermined amount until a threshold component score is reached.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising transmitting information intended to cause the user device of the second entity to display a representation related to the updated trust score for the first entity on the user device of the second entity.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising transmitting information intended to cause the user device of the second entity to display an actionable icon for the attribute associated with the first entity.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first data associated with the first entity comprises data indicating paths from the first entity to other entities in the computer network.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising causing the trust score to be transmitted for display on the user device of the second entity.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving a request for the trust score for the first entity from a user device of a third entity in the computer network;
retrieving, using the processing circuitry, data indicating paths in the computer network; and
identifying, based on the retrieved data indicating paths in the computer network, a path connecting the third entity to the second entity in the computer network, the path comprising a number of links that is less than a threshold number of links;
wherein recalculating the first component score based on the first data and the received data indicating the attribute associated with the first entity comprises improving the first component score by a predetermined amount.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving, from the user device of the second entity, an indication of an activity to be performed in the future by the first entity and the second entity, wherein the activity is associated with the attribute associated with the first entity; and
wherein recalculating the first component score based on the first data and the received data indicating the attribute associated with the first entity comprises improving the first component score by a predetermined amount.

8. A system for calculating a trust score, the system comprising:
a first database storing first data associated with a first entity in a computer network;
a second database storing second data associated with the first entity; and
processing circuitry configured to:
retrieve, from the first database, the first data;
calculate a first component score based on the first data;
retrieve, from the second database, the second data;
calculate a second component score based on the second data;
calculate a weighted combination of the first component score and the second component score to produce a trust score for the first entity;
receive, from a user device of a second entity in the computer network, data indicating an attribute associated with the first entity;
recalculate the first component score based on the first data and the received data indicating the attribute associated with the first entity;
update the trust score for the first entity by calculating a weighted combination of the recalculated first component score and the second component score;
wherein the processing circuitry is configured to receive, from the user device of the second entity, the data indicating an attribute associated with the first entity by receiving an indication of a user input from the second entity that validates the first data; and
wherein the processing circuitry is configured to recalculate the first component score based on the first data and the received data indicating the attribute associated with the first entity by improving the first component score by a predetermined amount until a threshold component score is reached.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:
receive a request for the trust score for the first entity from a user device of a third entity in the computer network;
retrieve data indicating paths in the computer network; and
identify, based on the retrieved data indicating paths in the computer network, a path connecting the third entity to the second entity in the computer network, the path comprising a number of links that is less than a threshold number of links;
wherein the processing circuitry is configured to recalculate the first component score based on the first data and the received data indicating the attribute associated with the first entity by improving the first component score by a predetermined amount.

10. The system of claim 8 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:
receive, from the user device of the second entity, an indication of an activity to be performed in the future by the first entity and the second entity, wherein the activity is associated with the attribute associated with the first entity; and
wherein the processing circuitry is configured to recalculate the first component score based on the first data and the received data indicating the attribute associated with the first entity by improving the first component score by a predetermined amount.

11. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions encoded thereon for calculating a trust score, the instructions comprising:
instructions for retrieving, from a first database using processing circuitry, first data associated with a first entity in a computer network;
instructions for calculating a first component score based on the first data;
instructions for retrieving, from a second database using the processing circuitry, second data associated with the first entity;
instructions for calculating a second component score based on the second data;
instructions for calculating a weighted combination of the first component score and the second component score to produce a trust score for the first entity;
instructions for receiving, from a user device of a second entity in the computer network, data indicating an attribute associated with the first entity;
instructions for recalculating the first component score based on the first data and the received data indicating the attribute associated with the first entity;
instructions for updating the trust score

Assignees

• Www Trustscience Com Inc

Inventors

• Chan Leo M
• Mawji Ashif

Classifications

• G06Q10/40

  Business processes related to social networking or social networking services · CPC title

• H04L63/105 Primary

  Multiple levels of security · CPC title

• G06Q40/03 Primary

  Credit; Loans; Processing thereof · CPC title

• G06Q10/0639

  Performance analysis of employees; Performance analysis of enterprise or organisation operations · CPC title

• H04L63/1433

  Vulnerability analysis · CPC title