Secure system and method for enforcement of privacy policy and protection of confidentiality

• US 20040054918A1
• Filed: 08/30/2002
• Published: 03/18/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 08/30/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Slingshot IOT LLC
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Perez, Ronald, Duri, Sastry S., Schonberg, Edith G., Liu, Xuan, Tresser, Charles P., Singh, Moninder, Moskowitz, Paul A., Tang, Jung-Mu, Gruteser, Marco O.
• Granted Patent: US 7,401,352 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/200
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/382 insuring higher security of transaction
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3829 involving key management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/383 Anonymous user system
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/56 Financial cryptography, e.g. electronic payment or e-cash
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/805 Lightweight hardware, e.g. radio-frequency identification [RFID] or sensor
• 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 63/104 Grouping of entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/321 involving a third party or a trusted authority
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3247 involving digital signatures
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3263 involving certificates, e.g. public key certificate [PKC] or attribute certificate [AC]; Public key infrastructure [PKI] arrangements network architectures or network communication protocols for supporting authentication of entities using certificates in a packet data network H04L63/0823

Abstract

The invention includes various systems, architectures, frameworks and methodologies that can securely enforce a privacy policy. A method is include for securely guaranteeing a privacy policy between two enterprises, comprising: creating a message at a first enterprise, wherein the message includes a request for data concerning a third party and a privacy policy of the first enterprise; signing and certifying the message that the first enterprise has a tamper-proof system with a privacy rules engine and that the privacy policy of the first entity will be enforced by the privacy rules engine of the first enterprise; sending the message to a second enterprise; and running a privacy rules engine at the second enterprise to compare the privacy policy of the first enterprise with a set of privacy rules for the third party.

Claims

1. A method for securely guaranteeing a privacy policy between two enterprises, comprising:

creating a message at a first enterprise, wherein the message includes a request for data concerning a third party and a privacy policy of the first enterprise;

signing and certifying the message that the first enterprise has a tamper-proof system with a privacy rules engine and that the privacy policy of the first enterprise will be enforced by the privacy rules engine of the first enterprise;

sending the message to a second enterprise; and

running a privacy rules engine at the second enterprise to compare the privacy policy of the first enterprise with a set of privacy rules for the third party.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein if the privacy policy of the first enterprise matches the set of privacy rules for the third party:

encrypting the data requested by the first enterprise; and

sending the encrypted requested data from the second enterprise to the first enterprise.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the certifying step includes the preliminary act of registering the first enterprise with a trusted agency; and

the second enterprise checks the trusted agency to verify the certification.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein both the first and second enterprises include a secure coprocessor.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein both the first and second enterprises each includes a hardware device built with a cryptographic identifier that allows the hardware device of the first enterprise and the hardware device of the second enterprise to recognize and certify each other.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the first enterprise comprises a merchant system, the second enterprise comprises a financial institution system, and the data comprises credit card information regarding an individual.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the first enterprise comprises a service provider, the second enterprise comprises a vehicle, and the data comprises information derived from the vehicle.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the information comprises identification information and one of location and diagnostic information.

9. An automotive telematics system having a privacy protection framework, comprising:

at least one sensor for collecting sensor data from at least one vehicle; and

a data protection manager for managing the sensor data, wherein the data protection manager includes;

a system for receiving data requests for sensor data from at least one application; and

a privacy engine that ensures that each application requesting data has a privacy policy that complies with a privacy policy of the privacy engine.

10. The automotive telematics system of claim 9, further comprising:

a system for authenticating a data request made by at least one application;

11. The automotive telematics system of claim 9, further comprising:

a system for storing each data request in a data log; and

a system for auditing said data log.

12. The automotive telematics system of claim 9, wherein,

at least one application resides in one of the vehicle and a computing system outside of the vehicle.

13. The automotive telematics system of claim 9, wherein

requests for data by a first application from a second application are processed by the privacy engine to assure that the privacy policy of the first application complies with the privacy policy of the second application.

14. The automotive telematics system of claim 9, wherein data requests are one of event and subscription based.

15. The automotive telematics system of claim 9, wherein:

the privacy engine includes a plurality of privacy policies;

the data protection manager associates sensor data with one of the plurality of privacy policies; and

the privacy engine ensures that each request for sensor data complies with an associated privacy policy.

16. The automotive telematics system of claim 9, wherein:

the privacy engine includes a plurality of privacy policies;

each of the privacy policies is corresponds to a different type of application; and

the privacy engine ensures that each application requesting data complies with a privacy policy.

17. The automotive telematics system of claim 9, wherein the data protection manager comprises a secure coprocessor.

18. The automotive telematics system of claim 9, wherein the data protection manager is implemented as a virtual blackboard that allows sensor data to be accessed locally and remotely.

19. The automotive telematics system of claim 9, wherein the data protection manager further comprises an application registry for registering applications.

20. A method for securely guaranteeing a privacy policy for credit card transactions, comprising:

building a plurality of data processing devices that can recognize each other using cryptography;

programming a privacy policy into each of the data processing devices;

certifying that each of the data processing devices are equipped with privacy policy enforcement means;

distributing the data processing devices to a merchant and a financial institution;

issuing a credit card to an end user from the financial institution, wherein the end user is assigned a privacy policy in the data processing device of the financial institution;

making a credit card purchase from the merchant by the end-user; and

requesting data from the financial institution'"'"'s data processing device by the merchant'"'"'s data processing device, wherein the type of data that can be provided to the merchant'"'"'s data processing device regarding the end user is governed by the assigned privacy policy of the end user.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the plurality of data processing devices comprise secure coprocessors.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein the plurality of data processing devices can communicate with each other using private key/public key pairs.