System, method, and program for storing and controlling access to data representing personal behavior

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9953188-B2
Application number	US-201615003056-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 21, 2016
Priority date	Feb 5, 2015
Publication date	Apr 24, 2018
Grant date	Apr 24, 2018

Abstract

A system for storing and controlling access to data representing personal behavior, the system comprising an ID retrieval apparatus to receive identifying information revealing the identity of an individual, to submit a request corresponding to the received identifying information to an ID generation apparatus, to receive an anonymized user ID in return, and to output the user ID to the individual; a data engine comprising a data store and an access controller, the store being inaccessible to the ID retrieval apparatus and configured to receive and store personalized behavioral data, access to the stored behavioral data being controlled by the controller, the behavioral data representing behavior of the individual, which data are anonymously personalized with the user ID; the controller controlling access to the data by requiring that access requests from service providers specify the user ID with which the behavioral data are personalized to access the data.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system for storing and controlling access to data representing personal behavior, the system comprising:
an ID retrieval apparatus configured to receive identifying information revealing an identity of an individual, to submit a request corresponding to received identifying information to an ID generation apparatus, to receive an anonymized user ID in return, and to output the anonymized user ID to the individual;
a data engine comprising a data store and an access controller, the data store being inaccessible to the ID retrieval apparatus and being configured to receive and store personalized behavioral data, access to stored personalized behavioral data being controlled by the access controller, wherein the personalized behavioral data are from a behavioral data source device;
the behavioral data source device being either one of a device configured to interact with the individual and to record information representing an interaction with the individual as behavioral data, and a sensor apparatus configured to record a series of measurements of a physical property of the individual as behavioral data; and
the behavioral data source device being configured to submit the behavioral data to the data engine as personalized behavioral data, either by one of anonymously personalizing the behavioral data with the anonymized user ID of the individual at the behavioral data source device, and via an intermediate device at which the behavioral data are received, anonymously personalized with the anonymized user ID of the individual, and transferred to the data engine as personalized behavioral data;
the access controller being configured to control access to the personalized behavioral data by requiring that data access requests from service providers specify the anonymized user ID with which the personalized behavioral data are personalized to access the personalized behavioral data, wherein the access controller is configured to maintain a list of service providers authorized to access the data store, to determine whether a received data access request is from one of the service providers of the list, and when not, to block the data access request;
the system further comprising:
a service providing apparatus operable on behalf of the one of the service providers authorized to access the data store and being configured to receive an anonymously personalized registration request from the individual, the anonymously personalized registration request being personalized only by the anonymized user ID, to submit a data access request to the data engine specifying the anonymized user ID and a range of the behavioral data personalized with the specified anonymized user ID, to receive behavioral data from within the range from the data engine, to execute data processing on received behavioral data, and to output a data processing result on behalf of the individual.

2. A system according to claim 1 , wherein the behavioral data source device is configured to receive and install software which, when executed, causes the data source device to generate personal data and to submit the generated personal data to the data engine.

3. A system according to claim 1 , wherein
the data store is configured to store received personalized behavioral data in association with a category from among a predetermined set of categories; and
the access controller is configured to control access to the personalized behavioral data by, upon receipt of a data access requests from a service provider, identifying the service provider, determining which category from among the predetermined set of categories the identified service provider is authorized to access, and precluding the data access request from accessing personalized behavioral data not categorized in the category which the service provider is authorized to access.

4. A system according to claim 1 , the system further comprising:
the ID generation apparatus, which is configured to create the anonymized user ID by executing an irreversible process in response to receiving the request, and to output the anonymized user ID to the individual via the ID retrieval apparatus.

5. A system according to claim 4 , wherein the ID generation apparatus is configured to perform creating and outputting the anonymized user ID as a stateless method.

6. A system according to claim 1 , wherein the ID retrieval apparatus is configured to submit the request to the ID generation apparatus in association with a request for another anonymized user IDs in addition to the anonymized user ID, to receive the another anonymized user ID, and to output the another anonymized user ID to the individual; and
wherein one of the behavioral data source device, and the intermediate device when utilized, is configured to accept from the individual a selection of one anonymized user ID from among the anonymized user ID and the another anonymized user ID, and to anonymously personalize behavioral data with the selected anonymized user ID.

7. A system according to claim 1 , wherein one of the ID retrieval apparatus and the ID generation apparatus are certified via a Public Key Infrastructure.

8. A method for storing and controlling access to data representing personal behavior, the method comprising:
receiving, at an ID retrieval apparatus, identifying information revealing an identity of an individual, submitting a request corresponding to received identifying information to an ID generation apparatus, receiving an anonymized user ID from the ID generation apparatus in return, and outputting the anonymized user ID to the individual;
receiving and storing, at a data engine comprising a data store and an access controller with the data store being inaccessible to the ID retrieval apparatus, personalized behavioral data, access to the stored personalized behavioral data being controlled by the access controller, wherein the personalized behavioral data are from a behavioral data source device, the behavioral data source device being either one of a device configured to interact with the individual and to record information representing an interaction with the individual as behavioral data, and a sensor apparatus configured to record a series of measurements of a physical property of the individual as behavioral data; and
the method further comprising:
submitting, by the behavioral data source device, the behavioral data to the data engine as personalized behavioral data, either by one of anonymously personalizing the behavioral data with the anonymized user ID of the individual at the behavioral data source device, and via an intermediate device at which the behavioral data are received, anonymously personalized with the anonymized user ID of the individual, and transferred to the data engine as personalized behavioral data;
controlling, at the access controller, access to the stored personalized behavioral data by requiring that data access requests from service providers specify the anonymized user ID with which the personalized behavioral data are personalized to access the personalized behavioral data, including maintaining a list of service providers authorized to access the data store, determining whether a received data access request is from one of the service providers of the list, and when not, blocking the data access request; and
at a service providing apparatus operable on behalf of the one of the service providers authorized to access the data store, receiving an anonymously personalized registration request from the individual, the anonymously personalized registration request being personalized only by the anonymized user ID, submitting a data access request to the data engine specifying the anonymized user ID and a range of the behavioral

Assignees

• Fujitsu Ltd

Inventors

• Snelling David

Classifications

• G06F21/6254 Primary

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

• H04L2209/42

  Anonymization, e.g. involving pseudonyms · CPC title

• H04L63/0421

  Anonymous communication, i.e. the party's identifiers are hidden from the other party or parties, e.g. using an anonymizer · CPC title