System and method for managing cooperative synthetic identities for privacy protection through identity obfuscation and synthesis

• US 10,460,129 B2
• Filed: 01/12/2017
• Issued: 10/29/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 01/12/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CA, Inc. (d/b/a CA Technologies) (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: CA, Inc. (d/b/a CA Technologies) (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Norris, Diane, Danielson, Debra, Piccus, Carol, Sleeth, Karen, Tyler, Stephen
• Primary Examiner(s): Li, Meng
• Application Number:
  US15/404,722
• Publication Number:
  US 20180196961A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,020 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6254 by anonymising data, e.g. decorrelating personal data from the owner's identification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2143 Clearing memory, e.g. to prevent the data from being stolen

Abstract

According to one embodiment of the disclosure, a method includes receiving, from a first requestor, a request to create a cooperative synthetic identity case for an original identity. The method includes determining whether a cooperative synthetic identity case has already been created for the original identity. The method also includes generating a case identifier that uniquely identifies the cooperative synthetic identity case. The method further includes associating the case identifier with an expiration period. The method also includes storing the cooperative synthetic identity case, the case identifier, and the expiration period to a memory. The method also includes sending the case identifier to the first requestor.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving, from a first requestor, a request to create a cooperative synthetic identity case for an original identity;

determining whether a cooperative synthetic identity case has already been created for the original identity;

in response to determining that the cooperative synthetic identity case has not already been created for the original identity, generating the cooperative synthetic identity case by replacing all personally identifiable information associated with the original identity with corresponding synthetic information;

generating a case identifier that uniquely identifies the cooperative synthetic identity case;

associating the case identifier with an expiration period;

storing the cooperative synthetic identity case, the case identifier, and the expiration period to a single memory;

associating the cooperative synthetic identity case with the personally identifiable information of the original identity;

storing the association between the cooperative synthetic identity case and the personally identifiable information of the original identity to the single memory; and

sending the case identifier to the first requestor.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

associating the corresponding synthetic information with the case identifier;

storing the corresponding synthetic information to the memory; and

sending the corresponding synthetic information to a second requestor.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, from a second requestor, a request to create the cooperative synthetic identity case for the original identity;

determining that the cooperative synthetic identity case has already been created for the original identity;

retrieving the case identifier for the cooperative synthetic identity case that was created for the original identity from the memory; and

retrieving corresponding synthetic information associated with the cooperative synthetic identity case from the memory.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining that an expiration date of the expiration period associated with the cooperative synthetic identity case has passed; and

deleting the cooperative synthetic identity case, the case identifier associated with the cooperative synthetic identity case, the expiration period for the cooperative synthetic identity case, and the corresponding synthetic information associated with the cooperative synthetic identity case from the memory.

5. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

encrypting the corresponding synthetic information; and

sending the encrypted corresponding synthetic information to the second requestor.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving from a user an indication of the expiration period.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

associating information identifying the original identity with the cooperative synthetic identity case;

storing the information identifying the original identity in the memory;

receiving, from a second requestor, a request for the original identity associated with the cooperative synthetic identity case;

retrieving the information identifying the original identity from the memory; and

sending the information identifying the original identity to the second requestor.

8. A computer configured to access a storage device, the computer comprising:

a processor; and

a non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium storing computer-readable instructions that when executed by the processor cause the computer to perform;

in response to receiving, from a first requestor, a request to create a cooperative synthetic identity case for an original identity, determining, using the processor, whether a cooperative synthetic identity case has already been created for the original identity;

in response to determining that the cooperative synthetic identity case has not already been created for the original identity, generating the cooperative synthetic identity case by replacing all personally identifiable information associated with the original identity with corresponding cooperative synthetic identity information;

generating a case identifier that uniquely identifies the cooperative synthetic identity case;

associating the case identifier with an expiration period;

storing the cooperative synthetic identity case, the case identifier, and the expiration period to a memory;

associating the cooperative synthetic identity case with the personally identifiable information of the original identity;

storing the association between the cooperative synthetic identity case and the personally identifiable information of the original identity to the single memory; and

sending the case identifier to the first requestor.

9. The computer of claim 8, wherein the computer-readable instructions further cause the computer to perform:

associating the corresponding cooperative synthetic identity information with the case identifier;

storing the corresponding cooperative synthetic identity information to the memory; and

sending the corresponding cooperative synthetic identity information to a second requestor.

10. The computer of claim 8, further comprising:

in response to receiving, from a second requestor, a request to create the cooperative synthetic identity case for the original identity, determining that the cooperative synthetic identity case has already been created for the original identity;

retrieving the case identifier for the cooperative synthetic identity case that was created for the original identity from the memory; and

retrieving the corresponding cooperative synthetic identity information associated with the cooperative synthetic identity case from the memory.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the computer-readable instructions further cause the computer to perform:

determining that an expiration date of the expiration period associated with the cooperative synthetic identity case has passed; and

deleting the cooperative synthetic identity case, the case identifier associated with the cooperative synthetic identity case, the expiration period for the cooperative synthetic identity case, and the corresponding cooperative synthetic identity information associated with the cooperative synthetic identity case from the memory.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the computer-readable instructions further cause the computer to perform:

encrypting the corresponding cooperative synthetic identity information; and

sending the encrypted corresponding cooperative synthetic identity information to the second requestor.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein the computer-readable instructions further cause the computer to perform receiving from a user an indication of the expiration period.

14. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that are executable to cause a system to perform operations comprising:

receiving, from a first requestor, a request to create a cooperative synthetic identity case for an original identity;

determining whether a cooperative synthetic identity case has already been created for the original identity;

in response to determining that the cooperative synthetic identity case has not already been created for the original identity, generating the cooperative synthetic identity case by replacing all personally identifiable information associated with the original identity with corresponding synthetic information;

generating a case identifier that uniquely identifies the cooperative synthetic identity case;

associating the case identifier with an expiration period;

storing the cooperative synthetic identity case, the case identifier, and the expiration period to a single memory;

associating the cooperative synthetic identity case with the personally identifiable information of the original identity;

storing the association between the cooperative synthetic identity case and the personally identifiable information of the original identity to the single memory; and

sending the case identifier to the first requestor.