Auditable privacy policies in a distributed hierarchical identity management system

• US 20050283443A1
• Filed: 06/16/2004
• Published: 12/22/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 06/16/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Callahan Cellular LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Callahan Cellular LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Hardt, Dick C.
• Granted Patent: US 9,245,266 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/67
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3674 involving authentication
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/382 insuring higher security of transaction
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/68 Special signature format, e.g. XML format
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/76 Proxy, i.e. using intermediary entity to perform cryptographic operations
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/08 for authentication of entities cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0815 providing single-sign-on or federations
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/12 Applying verification of the received information cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for data integrity or data verification H04L9/32
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/50 using hash chains, e.g. blockchains or hash trees

Abstract

A set of methods, and systems, for enabling the audit tracking of user agreement with policies, such as privacy policies in an authenticated fashion is disclosed herein. The method and system make use of third party signatures of privacy policies to show user approval of the policy as it pertains to released data.

Claims

1. A method of obtaining authenticated approval of a policy from a user at a membersite in an identity management network, the method comprising:

transmitting a digital request for acceptance of the policy through a data network;

receiving, through the data network, a digitally signed acceptance of the policy in response to the transmission of the request; and

determining that the received acceptance is digitally signed by an entity in the identity management network made authoritative to sign on behalf of the user by a trusted authority in the identity management network.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the policy is a privacy policy.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the privacy policy is a platform for privacy preference project compliant privacy policy.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of transmitting a request includes transmitting the policy and a request for user data associated with the policy.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of transmitting includes transmitting the request to the user.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of receiving includes receiving the digitally signed acceptance from the user.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of receiving includes receiving a digitally signed datablock including a copy of the policy and user data associated with the policy.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of determining that the received acceptance is digitally signed by an entity authoritative to sign on behalf of the user includes verifying a chain of delegations from the trusted authority to the third party.

11. The method of claim 1 further including the step of storing the signed acceptance.

8. (canceled)

9. (canceled)

12. A method of providing authenticated user approval of a digital policy at a node in an identity management network, the method comprising:

receiving, through a data network, a request to approve the digital policy;

obtaining approval of the policy from the user;

signing the policy on behalf of the user using a digital signature; and

transmitting the signed policy and a digital delegation from a trusted authority in the identity management network indicating that the digital signature is authoritative for the user.

13. The method of claim 12 further including the step of authenticating the user prior to obtaining the user approval.

14. The method of claim 12 further including the step of displaying the policy to the user prior to obtaining the user approval.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the policy includes a block of text and the step of displaying the policy includes displaying the block of text to the user.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the policy is a machine readable policy, and the step of displaying the policy includes comparing the policy to a set of user defined preferences, and displaying the result of the comparison to the user.

17. The method of claim 12, wherein the policy is a privacy policy.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the privacy policy the privacy policy is a platform for privacy preference project compliant privacy policy.

19. The method of claim 12, wherein the step of receiving includes receiving the request from a third party via the user.

20. The method of claim 12, wherein the step of signing includes signing a datablock including the policy and user data associated with the policy.

21. The method of claim 12, wherein the request is made by a third party and the step of transmitting includes transmitting a chain of signed delegations from the trusted authority, the chain of signed delegations indicating authority to sign on behalf of the user.