Systems and methods for managing privacy settings of shared content

• US 10,462,144 B2
• Filed: 02/22/2019
• Issued: 10/29/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 08/12/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Owen, Russell, Medvedev, Ivan, Shoemaker, Garth, Swerdlow, Andrew, Shteyn, Yevgeniy Eugene, Walker, Amanda Elwell
• Primary Examiner(s): Gee, Jason K
• Assistant Examiner(s): Holmes, Angela R
• Application Number:
  US16/282,965
• Publication Number:
  US 20190190916A1
• Time in Patent Office: 249 Days
• Field of Search: 713168
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6227 where protection concerns the structure of data, e.g. records, types, queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6245 Protecting personal data, e.g. for financial or medical purposes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6272 by registering files or documents with a third party
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0428 wherein the data content is protected, e.g. by encrypting or encapsulating the payload
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0471 applying encryption by an intermediary, e.g. receiving clear information at the intermediary and encrypting the received information at the intermediary before forwarding
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/061 for key exchange, e.g. in peer-to-peer networks cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for key agreement H04L9/0838
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/10 for controlling access to devices or network resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/02 Protecting privacy or anonymity, e.g. protecting personally identifiable information [PII]

Abstract

A system for managing privacy of shared content. The system includes a terminal device and a server device. The terminal device includes a content receiving device configured to receive content, a storage configured to store content by the content receiving device, a privacy setting determiner, a content obfuscator; and a transmitter configured to transmit obfuscated content. The server device includes a receiver configured to receive the obfuscated content from the transmitter of the terminal device, a publisher configured to publish the obfuscated content, and a de-obfuscator configured to, based on the received request to change privacy settings, de-obfuscate the at least a portion of the received content to generate de-obfuscated content.

Claims

1. A system for managing privacy of shared content, the system comprising:

a terminal device, the terminal device comprising;

a content receiving device configured to receive content;

a storage configured to store content by the content receiving device;

a privacy setting determiner configured to determine privacy settings associated with a representation of an object contained in the received content, the representation of the object being associated with a user of an online account that is not associated with the terminal device;

a content obfuscator configured to obfuscate at least a portion of the received content based on the privacy settings of the representation of the object contained in the received content to generate obfuscated content,

wherein the content obfuscator comprises;

a content partitioner configured to partition the received content into a plurality of layers, the plurality of layers having two or more levels of fidelity;

a key generator configured to generate an encryption key;

a layer encryptor configured to encrypt at least one of the plurality of layers using the generated encryption key; and

an obfuscated content generator configured to generate the obfuscated content by combining the encrypted at least one of the plurality of layers with a remainder of the plurality of layers; and

a transmitter configured to transmit the obfuscated content; and

a server device, the server device comprising;

a receiver configured to receive the obfuscated content from the transmitter of the terminal device;

a publisher configured to publish the obfuscated content to one or more third parties, wherein the receiver is configured to receive a request to change privacy settings of the object of the received content; and

a de-obfuscator configured to, based on the received request to change privacy settings, de-obfuscate the at least a portion of the received content to generate de-obfuscated content, wherein the publisher is configured to publish the de-obfuscated content to one or more third parties based on the received request to change privacy settings.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the privacy setting determiner comprises a second terminal signal receiver configured to receive a privacy setting signal from a second terminal device, wherein the privacy setting signal comprises the privacy settings of the object.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the privacy setting determiner comprises a second terminal signal receiver configured to receive object identifying signal from a second terminal device;

and a privacy setting database, wherein the privacy setting determiner is configured to determine the privacy settings associated with the received object identifying signal.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the privacy setting determiner comprises:

a database comprising;

privacy settings associated with one or more users; and

content features associated with the one or more users;

a content feature extractor configured to extract features of the object of the received content;

a content feature matcher configured to match the extracted features of the object of the received content with content features associated with one of the one or more users stored in the database; and

a privacy settings retriever configured to retrieve privacy settings associated with the one of the one or more users based on a match between the extracted features of the object and the content features associated with the one of the one or more users.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the publisher comprises:

an obfuscated content publisher configured to publish the obfuscated content to the one or more third parties; and

a key provider configured to provide the encryption key to at one or more of the one or more third parties, based on the privacy settings of the object of the received content.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the key provider, based on the privacy settings of the object of the received content, modifies a security characteristic of the encryption key based on at least one of:

an elapsed time, and an attempt to transfer the encryption key by the one or more third parties.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the layer encryptor, based on the privacy settings of the object of the received content, configures the encryption to weaken based on elapsed time.

8. A system for managing privacy of shared content, the system comprising:

a terminal device, the terminal device comprising;

a content receiver configured to receive content;

a storage configure to store received content; and

a transmitter configured to transmit the received content; and

a server, comprising;

a receiver configured to receive the received content transmitted from the transmitter of the terminal device;

a privacy setting determiner configured to determine privacy settings of a representation of an object contained in the received content;

a content obfuscator configured to obfuscate at least a portion of the received content based on the privacy settings of the representation of the object contained in the received content to generate obfuscated content,

wherein the content obfuscator comprises;

a content partitioner configured to partition the received content into a plurality of layers, the plurality of layers having two or more levels of fidelity;

a key generator configured to generate an encryption key;

a layer encryptor configured to encrypt at least one of the plurality of layers using the generated encryption key; and

an obfuscated content generator configured to generate the obfuscated content by combining the encrypted at least one of the plurality of layers with a remainder of the plurality of layers;

a publisher configured to publish the obfuscated content to one or more third parties, wherein the receiver is configured to receive a request to change privacy settings of the representation of the object of the received content; and

a de-obfuscator configured to, based on the received request to change privacy settings, de-obfuscate the at least a portion of the received content to generate de-obfuscated content, wherein the publisher is configured to, based on the received request to change privacy settings, publish the de-obfuscated content to one or more third parties.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the privacy setting determiner comprises a second terminal signal receiver configured to receive a privacy setting signal from a second terminal device, wherein the privacy setting signal comprises the privacy settings of the object.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the privacy setting determiner comprises a second terminal signal receiver configured to receive object identifying signal from a second terminal device;

and

a privacy setting database, wherein the privacy setting determiner is configured to determine the privacy settings associated with the received object identifying signal.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the privacy setting determiner comprises:

a database comprising;

privacy settings associated with one or more users; and

content features associated with the one or more users;

a content feature extractor configured to extract features of the object of the received content;

a content feature matcher configured to match the extracted features of the object of the received content with content features associated with one of the one or more users stored in the database; and

a privacy settings retriever configured to retrieve privacy settings associated with the one of the one or more users based on a match between the extracted features of the object and the content features associated with the one of the one or more users.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the publisher comprises:

an obfuscated content publisher configured to publish the obfuscated content to the one or more third parties; and

a key provider configured to provide the encryption key to at one or more of the one or more third parties, based on the privacy settings of the object of the received content.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the key provider, based on the privacy settings of the object of the received content, modifies a security characteristic of the encryption key based on at least one of:

an elapsed time, and an attempt to transfer the encryption key by the one or more third parties.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the layer encryptor, based on the privacy settings of the object of the received content, configures the encryption to weaken based on elapsed time.