Content validation using blockchain

• US 10,121,025 B1
• Filed: 02/22/2018
• Issued: 11/06/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 02/22/2018
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Capital One Services LLC (Capital One Financial Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Capital One Services LLC (Capital One Financial Corporation)
• Inventors: Rice, Pamela
• Primary Examiner(s): Chai, Longbit
• Application Number:
  US15/902,368
• Time in Patent Office: 257 Days
• Field of Search: 726 30
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1805 Append-only file systems, e.g. using logs or journals to store data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1834 implemented based on peer-to-peer networks, e.g. gnutella p2p communication protocols H04L67/104
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/10 Protecting distributed programs or content, e.g. vending or licensing of copyrighted material protection in video systems or pay television H04N7/16 ; Digital rights management [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/602 Providing cryptographic facilities or services
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/64 Protecting data integrity, e.g. using checksums, certificates or signatures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/645 using a third party
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/608 Watermarking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1042 using topology management mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0637 Modes of operation, e.g. cipher block chaining [CBC], electronic codebook [ECB] or Galois/counter mode [GCM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0643 Hash functions, e.g. MD5, SHA, HMAC or f9 MAC
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/30 Public key, i.e. encryption algorithm being computationally infeasible to invert or user's encryption keys not requiring secrecy
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3239 involving non-keyed hash functions, e.g. modification detection codes [MDCs], MD5, SHA or RIPEMD
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/50 using hash chains, e.g. blockchains or hash trees

Abstract

A device may receive content data from a content provider, the content data including: data identifying content, and data for verifying that the content has not changed. The device may access a blockchain associated with the content data, the blockchain including validation information specifying instructions for validating the content. In addition, the device may perform, based on the validation information, validation of the content to determine a measure of confidence that the content is accurate and store results of the validation in the blockchain as a transaction. Based on the validation results, the device may perform an action.

Claims

1. A content validation device for validating content of a content provider, comprising:

one or more memory devices; and

one or more processor devices, communicatively connected to the one or more memory devices, to;

receive content data from the content provider, the content data including;

data identifying content,

the content to be provided to a user by the content provider, and

data for verifying that the content has not changed;

access a blockchain associated with the content data, the blockchain including;

validation information specifying instructions for validating the content,

the validation information included in the blockchain comprising an algorithm for evaluating a level of accuracy of the content by assigning scores to various attributes of the content,

 

the algorithm including different weights for the various attributes of the content,

 

a first weight being assigned to an inaccurate fact parameter associated with the content,

 

a second weight being assigned to another accuracy parameter associated with the content,

 

the first weight having a greater effect on a final accuracy score than the second weight,

 

the scores being weighted to produce the final accuracy score,

 

the final accuracy score being compared to a threshold to determine the level of accuracy;

perform, based on the validation information, a validation of the content to determine a measure of confidence that the content is accurate;

store validation results of the validation in the blockchain,

the validation results being stored in the blockchain as a transaction; and

perform an action based on the validation results,

where the one or more processor devices, when performing the action based on the validation results, are to;

provide, to a content provider device associated with the content provider, data that causes display of a validation indicator with the content,

the validation indicator being based on the validation results.

2. The content validation device of claim 1, where the data identifying the content is a network address associated with the content.

3. The content validation device of claim 1, where the content data includes data identifying a source of the content.

4. The content validation device of claim 1, where:

the blockchain is a permissioned blockchain associated with a blockchain network; and

the device is included in the blockchain network.

5. The content validation device of claim 1, where:

the content data includes incentive information,

the incentive information specifying compensation available for performing validation of the content.

6. The content validation device of claim 1, where the blockchain includes a status identifier,

the status identifier indicating whether the content is validated.

7. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions, the instructions comprising:

one or more instructions that, when executed by one or more processor devices, cause the one or more devices to;

receive data identifying content associated with a content provider;

receive hash data that is based on a hash of the content;

access a blockchain associated with the content, the blockchain including;

validation information specifying a process for validating the content,

the validation information included in the blockchain comprising an algorithm for evaluating a level of accuracy of the content by assigning scores to various attributes of the content,

 

the algorithm including different weights for the various attributes of the content,

 

a first weight being assigned to an inaccurate fact parameter associated with the content,

 

a second weight being assigned to another accuracy parameter associated with the content,

 

the first weight having a greater effect on a final accuracy score than the second weight,

 

the scores being weighted to produce the final accuracy score,

 

the final accuracy score being compared to a threshold to determine the level of accuracy;

determine whether the content is accurate based on the validation information;

store results of the determination in the blockchain, the results being stored in the blockchain as a transaction;

perform an action based on the results; and

provide to a content provider device associated with the content provider, data that causes display of a validation indicator with the content, the validation indicator being based on the validation results.

8. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 7, where the one or more instructions, that cause the one or more processor devices to determine whether the content is accurate based on the validation information, cause the one or more processor devices to:

evaluate at least one validation parameter,

each of the at least one validation parameter indicating whether at least a portion of the content is accurate.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8, where the at least one validation parameter includes at least one of:

a first value indicating a measure of confidence that quotes included in the content are accurate;

a second value indicating a measure of confidence that a title associated with the content matches a meaning associated with the content;

a third value indicating a measure of confidence that the content provider is a provider of valid content;

a fourth value indicating a peer consensus score that indicates a degree to which peers of the content provider are associated with peer content related to the content;

a fifth value indicating a measure of confidence that facts presented in the content are accurate;

a sixth value indicating a measure of quality associated with a grammar of the content;

or

a seventh value indicating a measure of quality associated with a tone of the content.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8, where the one or more instructions, that cause the one or more processor devices to determine whether the content is accurate based on the validation information, cause the one or more processor devices to:

generate an evaluation score based on the at least one validation parameter; and

determine whether the content is accurate based on the evaluation score.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 10, where:

each of the at least one validation parameter is associated with a weight; and

the one or more instructions, that cause the one or more processor devices to generate the evaluation score based on the at least one validation parameter, cause the one or more processor devices to;

generate the evaluation score based on the weight for each of the at least one validation parameter.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 10, where the one or more instructions, that cause the one or more processor devices to determine whether the content is accurate based on the validation information, cause the one or more processor devices to:

determine that the content is accurate based on the evaluation score meeting a threshold evaluation score.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 10, where the one or more instructions, that cause the one or more processor devices to determine whether to validate the content based on the evaluation score, cause the one or more processor devices to:

determine that the content is inaccurate based on the evaluation score failing to meet a threshold evaluation score.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8, where the one or more instructions, that cause the one or more processor devices to store results of the determination in the blockchain, cause the one or more processor devices to:

store each value associated with the at least one validation parameter in data associated with the transaction.

15. A method, comprising:

receiving, by a device associated with a blockchain network, content data associated with a content provider, the content data including data identifying content;

accessing, by the device, a blockchain associated with the content data, the blockchain including;

validation information specifying instructions for validating the content,

the validation information included in the blockchain comprising an algorithm for evaluating a level of accuracy of the content by assigning scores to various attributes of the content,

the algorithm including different weights for the various attributes of the content,

 

a first weight being assigned to an inaccurate fact parameter associated with the content,

 

a second weight being assigned to another accuracy parameter associated with the content,

 

the first weight having a greater effect on a final accuracy score than the second weight,

 

the scores being weighted to produce the final accuracy score,

 

the final accuracy score being compared to a threshold to determine the level of accuracy;

performing, by the device and based on the validation information, a validation of the content to determine whether the content is accurate;

storing, by the device, validation results of the validation in the blockchain, the validation results being stored in a transaction on the blockchain;

performing, by the device, an action based on the validation results; and

providing to a content provider device associated with the content provider, data that causes display of a validation indicator with the content, the validation indicator being based on the validation results.

16. The method of claim 15, where performing the action based on the validation results comprises:

providing the content provider with data indicating the validation results.

17. The method of claim 15, where performing the action based on the validation results comprises:

providing, to a plurality of other devices associated with the blockchain, a notification indicating the validation results.

18. The method of claim 15, where performing the action based on the validation results comprises:

providing, to a content provider device associated with the content provider, data that causes display of a validation indicator with the content, the validation indicator being based on the validation results.

19. The method of claim 18, where the data that causes display of the validation indicator includes a universal resource locator (URL).

20. The method of claim 18, where the data that causes display of the validation indicator causes display of at least one of:

a watermark;

a background;

a pop-up;

a web page element;

an overlay;

or

text indicating a status of the content, the text being based on the validation results.