Transport facilitation system implementing dual content encryption

• US 10,129,221 B1
• Filed: 07/05/2016
• Issued: 11/13/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 07/05/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Uber Technologies, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Uber Technologies, Inc.
• Inventors: McClendon, Brian
• Primary Examiner(s): Reza, Mohammad W
• Application Number:
  US15/202,481
• Time in Patent Office: 861 Days
• Field of Search: 713168
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/40 Business processes related to the transportation industry shipping G06Q10/083
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/84 Vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0428 wherein the data content is protected, e.g. by encrypting or encapsulating the payload
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0442 wherein the sending and receiving network entities apply asymmetric encryption, i.e. different keys for encryption and decryption cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for public-key encryption H04L9/30
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0825 using asymmetric-key encryption or public key infrastructure [PKI], e.g. key signature or public key certificates
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0894 Escrow, recovery or storing of secret information, e.g. secret key escrow or cryptographic key storage
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/02 Protecting privacy or anonymity, e.g. protecting personally identifiable information [PII]

Abstract

A transport facilitation system can manage a transportation arrangement service that links requesting users with available drivers throughout a given region. In doing so, the transport facilitation system can receive pick-up requests from users and transmit invitations to drivers to service those requests. For each ride, the transport facilitation system can initiate one or more recording mechanisms to record content within a passenger interior of the vehicle as the driver transports the requesting user from a pick-up location to a destination location. After the vehicle arrives at the destination location, the transport facilitation system can dual encrypt the content utilizing a first public key associated with the driver and a second public key associated with the requesting user, and store the dually encrypted content in a storage device. Decryption can require a pair of private keys associated with the rider and the driver.

Claims

1. A transport facilitation system comprising:

one or more processors; and

one or more memory resources storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to;

manage a transportation arrangement service that links requesting users with available drivers throughout a given region;

receive a pick-up request from a user device of a requesting user, located within the given region, via a rider application executing on the user device;

transmit an invitation to service the pick-up request to a driver device of a driver via an executing driver application, the driver operating a vehicle within proximity to the requesting user;

initiate one or more recording mechanisms to record at least one of audio or video content within a passenger interior of the vehicle as the driver transports the requesting user from a pick-up location to a destination location;

after the vehicle arrives at the destination location, transmit one or more termination triggers to terminate the one or more recording mechanisms;

dual encrypt the at least one of audio or video content utilizing a first public key associated with the driver and a second public key associated with the requesting user; and

store the encrypted content in a storage device, wherein decryption of the encrypted content requires both a first private key associated with the driver and a second private key associated with the requesting user.

2. The transport facilitation system of claim 1, wherein the one or more recording mechanisms comprise the driver device, and wherein the executed instructions cause the one or more processors to initiate the one or more recording mechanisms by transmitting a first initiation signal to the driver device, via the driver application, prior to the driver arriving at the pick-up location.

3. The transport facilitation system of claim 2, wherein the executed instructions cause the one or more processors to initiate content recording on the driver device for each respective pick-up request serviced by the driver, and wherein the executed instructions cause the one or more processors to dual encrypt each respective recording using the first public key and a respective public key of a current rider associated with a current respective pick-up request.

4. The transport facilitation system of claim 2, wherein the one or more recording mechanisms further comprise the user device, and wherein the executed instructions cause the one or more processors to initiate the one or more recording mechanisms by transmitting a second initiation signal to the user device, via the rider application, prior to the driver arriving at the pick-up location.

5. The transport facilitation system of claim 4, wherein the executed instructions further cause the one or more processors to:

monitor a dynamic location of the driver, via a location-based resource of the driver device; and

while the driver is traveling to the pick-up location, determine an estimated time of arrival (ETA) of the driver;

wherein the executed instructions cause the one or more processors to transmit both the first and second initiation signals to the driver device and rider device at a predetermined time prior to the driver arriving at the pick-up location as determined from the ETA.

6. The transport facilitation system of claim 4, wherein the encrypted content comprises both content recorded by the driver device and content recorded by the user device as the vehicle travels from the pick-up location to the destination location, and wherein the executed instructions cause the one or more processors to dual encrypt both the content recorded by the driver device and the content recorded by the user device using both the first and second public keys.

7. The transport facilitation system of claim 1, wherein the first private key is stored on the driver device and the second private key is stored on the user device.

8. The transport facilitation system of claim 1, wherein the first and second private keys comprise dedicated private keys associated with encrypted content storage corresponding to the transportation arrangement service, and wherein the dedicated private keys are stored on a secure cloud encryption key storage site independent from the transport facilitation system.

9. The transport facilitation system of claim 1, wherein the encrypted content only comprises audio content.

10. The transport facilitation system of claim 1, wherein the encrypted content comprises both audio and video content.

11. The transport facilitation system of claim 1, wherein the executed instructions further cause the one or more processors to:

provide an opt-in feature on the rider application to enable the requesting user to trigger the one or more processors to initiate the one or more recording mechanisms to record the at least one of audio or video content within the passenger interior of the vehicle.

12. A computer-implemented method of securing content, the method being performed by one or more processors of a transport facilitation system and comprising:

managing a transportation arrangement service that links requesting users with available drivers throughout a given region;

receiving a pick-up request from a user device of a requesting user, located within the given region, via a rider application executing on the user device-;

transmitting an invitation to service the pick-up request to a driver device of a driver via an executing driver application, the driver operating a vehicle within proximity to the requesting user;

initiating one or more recording mechanisms to record at least one of audio or video content within a passenger interior of the vehicle as the driver transports the requesting user from a pick-up location to a destination location;

after the vehicle arrives at the destination location, transmitting one or more termination triggers to terminate the one or more recording mechanisms;

dual encrypting the at least one of audio or video content utilizing a first public key associated with the driver and a second public key associated with the requesting user; and

storing the encrypted content in a storage device, wherein decryption of the encrypted content requires both a first private key associated with the driver and a second private key associated with the requesting user.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the one or more recording mechanisms comprise the user device, and wherein the one or more processors initiate the one or more recording mechanisms by transmitting a first initiation signal to the user device, via the rider application, prior to the driver arriving at the pick-up location.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the one or more recording mechanisms further comprise the driver device, and wherein the one or more processors initiate the one or more recording mechanisms by transmitting a second initiation signal to the driver device, via the driver application, prior to the driver arriving at the pick-up location.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the one or more processors initiate content recording on the driver device for each respective pick-up request serviced by the driver, and wherein the one or more processors dual encrypt each respective recording using the first public key and a respective public key of a current rider associated with a current respective pick-up request.

16. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

monitoring a dynamic location of the driver, via a location-based resource of the driver device; and

while the driver is traveling to the pick-up location, determining an estimated time of arrival (ETA) of the driver;

wherein the one or more processors transmit both the first and second initiation signals to the driver device and rider device at a predetermined time prior to the driver arriving at the pick-up location as determined from the ETA.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein the encrypted content comprises both content recorded by the driver device and content recorded by the user device as the vehicle travels from the pick-up location to the destination location, and wherein the one or more processors dual encrypt both the content recorded by the driver device and the content recorded by the user device using both the first and second public keys.

18. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a transport facilitation system, cause the one or more processors to:

manage a transportation arrangement service that links requesting users with available drivers throughout a given region;

receive a pick-up request from a user device of a requesting user, located within the given region, via a rider application executing on the user device;

transmit an invitation to service the pick-up request to a driver device of a driver via an executing driver application, the driver operating a vehicle within proximity to the requesting user;

initiate one or more recording mechanisms to record at least one of audio or video content within a passenger interior of the vehicle as the driver transports the requesting user from a pick-up location to a destination location;

after the vehicle arrives at the destination location, transmit one or more termination triggers to terminate the one or more recording mechanisms;

dual encrypt the at least one of audio or video content utilizing a first public key associated with the driver and a second public key associated with the requesting user; and

store the encrypted content in a storage device, wherein decryption of the encrypted content requires both a first private key associated with the driver and a second private key associated with the requesting user.

19. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 18, wherein the one or more recording mechanisms comprise the driver device, and wherein the executed instructions cause the one or more processors to initiate the one or more recording mechanisms by transmitting a first initiation signal to the driver device, via the driver application, prior to the driver arriving at the pick-up location.

20. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 19, wherein the executed instructions cause the one or more processors to initiate content recording on the driver device for each respective pick-up request serviced by the driver, and wherein the executed instructions cause the one or more processors to dual encrypt each respective recording using the first public key and a respective public key of a current rider associated with a current respective pick-up request.