Process for the user-related answering of customer inquiries in data networks

• US 10,033,705 B2
• Filed: 12/03/2015
• Issued: 07/24/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 12/03/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Zeotap Gmbh
• Original Assignee: Zeotap Gmbh
• Inventors: Heer, Daniel, Podlesny, Jannik
• Primary Examiner(s): Zand, Kambiz
• Assistant Examiner(s): Sherkat, Arezoo
• Application Number:
  US14/957,687
• Publication Number:
  US 20160164847A1
• Time in Patent Office: 964 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/235 Update request formulation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2358 Change logging, detection, and notification replication G06F16/27
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6254 by anonymising data, e.g. decorrelating personal data from the owner's identification
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/016 After-sales
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/38 Telephone uniform resource identifier [URI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/654 International mobile subscriber identity [IMSI] numbers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0428 wherein the data content is protected, e.g. by encrypting or encapsulating the payload
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/53 using third party service providers
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/556 Statistical analysis and interpretation
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/558 Databases
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/00 Automatic or semi-automatic exchanges
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5191 interacting with the Internet
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/02 Protecting privacy or anonymity, e.g. protecting personally identifiable information [PII]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/12 Detection or prevention of fraud
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/21 for social networking applications

Abstract

A process for the processing of user inquiries in a data network saves user data anonymized at first in an independent process with an independent third-party vendor, which can then be accessed by the use of several incremental encryption and anonymization routines in such a way that, on the one hand the provider is not involved in the data exchange and in other respects even the independent third-party vendor does not have access to the user data at any time, albeit with the result that anonymized customer data, especially information about age, sex and partial postal code, can be kept ready in a database for the mobile end device being used.

Claims

1. A process for a user-related answering of customer inquiries in data networks, the process comprising steps of:

integrating a software module within a mobile network,

communicating, via the software module, a first request to a server address within a data network of a first provider when a user uses the software module via an end device, wherein the first request comprises a data packet comprising a device ID of the end device,

anonymizing the device ID in that a hash routine is performed on the device ID to form an anonymized device ID,

determining an ID for identification of the user in that the first provider extracts the ID from the data packet, the first provider being associated with the server address,

anonymizing the ID via an independent third-party provider performing a third-party hash routine on the ID to form an anonymized ID,

encrypting the anonymized ID via the independent third-party provider performing an asymmetric encryption routine on the anonymized ID to form an encrypted ID,

then, via a server associated with the server address, supplementing the first request by the encrypted ID to form a supplemented data packet,

performing an upstream process independent and decoupled from the first request, the upstream process comprising;

performing a first upstream hash routine on IDs of inquiring users to form hashed upstream IDs,

communicating, via the first provider, upstream customer data records to the independent third-party vendor, the upstream customer data records comprising the hashed upstream IDs in combination with anonymized customer data, the first provider being responsible for the end device,

then further hashing, via the independent third-party vendor, the upstream customer data records including the hashed upstream IDs to form further anonymized upstream customer data records including doubly hashed upstream IDs,

encrypting the further anonymized upstream customer data records including the doubly hashed upstream IDs via the independent third-party vendor using a key to perform an upstream asymmetric encryption routine on the further anonymized upstream customer data records and on the doubly hashed upstream IDs to form encrypted upstream customer data records including the encrypted doubly hashed upstream IDs,

decrypting, via the independent third-party provider using the key, the encrypted doubly hashed upstream IDs to form doubly hashed unencrypted upstream IDs,

encrypting, via the independent third-party provider using a second key, the doubly hashed unencrypted upstream IDs to form reencrypted, doubly hashed upstream IDs, and

filing and saving the encrypted upstream customer data records and the reencrypted, doubly hashed upstream IDs in a database to form filed encrypted upstream customer data records and filed reencrypted, doubly hashed upstream IDs, the database belonging to the server associated with the server address

then, identifying, via the server, a filed encrypted customer data record of the filed encrypted upstream customer data records and identifying a filed reencrypted, doubly hashed customer ID of the filed reencrypted, doubly hashed upstream IDs from the database, in connection with the first request of the user, on a basis of the encrypted ID provided at the server, to form identified customer data records and an identified reencrypted customer ID,

retrieving, via the server, the identified customer data records and the identified reencrypted customer ID from the database to form retrieved customer data records and a retrieved reencrypted customer ID, respectively,

merging, via the server, the retrieved customer data records and the retrieved reencrypted customer ID with the anonymized device ID of the supplemented data packet to form merged customer data,

combining the merged customer data with user access information to form combined customer data, the user access information comprising a record of the user using the software module,

irreversibly deleting from the server the ID from the data packet, the anonymized ID, and the encrypted ID, and

communicating the combined customer data to a second provider, the second provider providing the software module and/or

saving the combined customer data in a further database for processing of future inquiries.

2. The process according to claim 1, wherein the combined customer data is saved in a further database for processing of future inquiries,

wherein the process further comprises steps of:

submitting, via a further mobile end device, a further request comprising a further device ID, and

accessing from the further database a data record corresponding to the further device ID.

3. The process according to claim 1, wherein the software module is integrated within a mobile application of software of the end device,

wherein the user uses the software module by using the mobile application on the end device to visit the mobile website, and

wherein the mobile application on the user end device initializes the first request to the server address.

4. The process according to claim 3, further comprising a step of:

as a part of the upstream process, forming the anonymized customer data via the independent third party vendor performing a profile data hash routine on customer data.

5. The process according to claim 1, wherein the combined customer data is saved in a further database as saved combined customer data for processing of future inquiries, and

wherein the process further comprises a step of:

when the further database receives a future request, automatically communicating the retrieved customer data records of the saved combined customer data in combination with the anonymized device ID of the saved combined customer data.

6. The process according to claim 1, wherein the ID extracted from the data packet comprises an IMSI of the end device, and

wherein the IDs in the upstream process respectively comprise IMSIs of customers.

7. The process according to claim 1, wherein the anonymized customer data in the upstream process comprises age, sex, and first three digits of a postal code of customers.

8. The process according to claim 1, wherein the combined customer data is saved in a further database for processing of future inquiries to form saved combined customer data, and

wherein the process further comprises a step of:

when the further database receives an inquiry from a further Internet provider, automatically communicating the retrieved customer data records of the saved combined customer data in combination with the anonymized device ID of the saved combined customer data as a score.

9. The process according to claim 8, wherein the inquiry from the further Internet provider comprises a specific offer, and

wherein the score comprises a degree of agreement of the retrieved customer data records with the specific offer.

10. The process according to claim 1, wherein the software module is integrated within a website of the second provider,

wherein the user uses the software module by using the end device to visit the website of the second provider, and

wherein the website of the second provider initializes the first request to the server address.

11. The process according to claim 1, wherein the device ID is a tracking device ID.

12. The process according to claim 1, wherein the device ID is a quasi device ID.

13. The process according to claim 3, wherein the anonymizing of the device ID occurs via the mobile application on the end device performing the hash routine to form the anonymized device ID.

14. The process according to claim 10, wherein the anonymizing of the device ID occurs via the server associated with the server address performing the hash routine to form the anonymized device ID.