System for Enabling Secure Private Exchange of Data and Communication Between Anonymous Network Participants and Third Parties and a Method Thereof

• US 20080015927A1
• Filed: 07/16/2007
• Published: 01/17/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 07/17/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Kindcast Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Kindcast Incorporated
• Inventors: Ramirez, Francisco J.
• Application Number:
  US11/778,643
• Publication Number:
  US 20080015927A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/10
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06395 Quality analysis or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0227 Filtering policies mail message filtering H04L51/212
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/102 Entity profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1408 by monitoring network traffic monitoring network traffic per se H04L43/00

Abstract

Disclosed is a method for providing secure private exchange of a profile data of a network participant between the participant and a plurality of third parties. The method comprises registering profile data by the network participant with a privacy control unit, assigning privacy levels to each of the plurality of attributes of the profile data, transferring the profile data along with privacy levels assigned to each of a plurality of attributes of the profile data to a privacy control unit generating a report for research and for targeting promotion campaigns to the network participant by using the profile data. The report is accessed by the plurality of third parties for communications with the network participant, wherein the plurality of third parties are registered with and invoiced by the privacy control unit. A portion of the invoice is provided as a fee to the network participant for providing the profile data.

Claims

1. A method for secure exchange of a profile data of a network participant between the network participant and a plurality of content source websites, the method comprising:

registering the profile data by the network participant with a privacy control unit, wherein the profile data comprises a plurality of attributes;

assigning privacy levels to each of the plurality of attributes by the network participant;

distributing a token to the network participant by the privacy control unit, the token serving as a proxy for the profile data of the network participant and the privacy levels assigned to each of the plurality of attributes;

routing the token through a web beacon in a content source website of the plurality of content source websites to the privacy control unit upon the network participant accessing the content source website of the plurality of content source websites;

generating a report for research and for targeting promotion campaigns to the network participant by using the token, wherein the report is generated by the privacy control unit; and

charging the content source website through an invoice generated by the privacy control unit for providing the report and empowering communications to a targeted set of network participants while preserving the network participants privacy, wherein a portion of the invoice is provided as a fee to the network participant for providing the profile data to the content source website and responding to the communications from the content source website through the privacy control unit.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the targeting and presentation of communications to network participants is done by computing a multi-faceted relevancy score based upon the affinity of a target audience specified by a content source and voluntarily supplied profile data maintained by a network participant.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the fee of the network participant is transferred to a third party using a widget, wherein the widget is a software component installed on the network participant.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the web beacon provides the privacy control unit with at least one of the token, browser statistics of the network participant, recipient of the fee to the network participant, and information about an organization that deployed the web beacon.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising calculating and communicating the fees applicable for registering and managing the profile data and responding to the targeted promotion campaigns through the privacy control unit.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the network participant is one of an internet service subscriber, a network application and a user of a computing device in a network.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the network participant is the user of the computing device in the network and the user is capable of accessing the content source website through a plurality of computing devices in the network, and wherein a token corresponding to each of the plurality of computing devices corresponds to the profile data.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the content source website of the plurality of content source websites is one of a web site, a file server, a network server and an operator of the content source website.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the exchange of the profile data using the token through the privacy control unit between the network participant and the content source website is independent of a usage pattern of the network participant and information registered by the network participant at the content source website.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising auditing a quality of the profile data by the content source website for evaluating the legitimacy of the profile data.

11. A method of secure exchange of a profile data of a network participant between the network participant and a plurality of content sources, the method comprising:

installing a software on the network participant, the software monitoring use and behavior pattern of the network participant upon network participant confirming the installation of the software;

transferring the profile data along with privacy levels assigned to each of a plurality of attributes of the profile data to a privacy control unit periodically through the software installed on the network participant;

generating a report for research and for targeting promotion campaigns to the network participant by using the profile data transferred through the software, wherein the report is generated by the privacy control unit;

accessing the report by the plurality of content sources for communications with the network participant, wherein the plurality of content sources are registered with the privacy control unit; and

charging the plurality of content sources through an invoice generated by the privacy control unit for providing the report and empowering communications, wherein a portion of the invoice is provided as a fee to the network participant for providing the profile data to the plurality of content sources and responding to communications through the privacy control unit.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the software is a client based application installed on the network participant.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the privacy levels are assigned using an anonymous token associated with the profile data of the network participant.

14. A system comprising:

a plurality of network participants, wherein each network participant of the plurality of network participants associated with a profile data, the profile data comprising a plurality of attributes;

a plurality of content source websites, wherein each network participant of the plurality of network participants is capable of accessing the plurality of content source websites; and

a privacy control unit in operative communication with the plurality of network participants and the plurality of content source websites, the privacy control unit comprising

a database for storing the profile data and privacy levels for each of the plurality of attributes of the profile data associated with each of the plurality of network participants, wherein each network participant registers the associated profile data and assigns the privacy levels for each of the plurality of attributes of the associated profile data with the privacy control unit,

a token management system capable of

distributing a token of a plurality of tokens to a network participant of the plurality of network participants, the token serving as a proxy for the profile data of the network participant and the privacy levels assigned to each of the plurality of attributes of the profile data, and

routing the token through a web beacon in a content source website of the plurality of content source websites to the privacy control unit upon the network participant accessing the content source website of the plurality of content source websites,

a business intelligence module for generating a report for research and for targeting promotion campaigns to the plurality of network participants by using the plurality of tokens, and

an accounting module capable of

invoicing the content source website of the plurality of content source websites, and

providing a fee to the network participant for providing the profile data and responding to communications from the content source website through the privacy control unit.

15. The system of claim 14, further comprising a web application service module for calculating and communicating the fees applicable for registering the profile data and responding and managing the profile data and responding to the targeted promotion campaigns through the privacy control unit.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the network participant of the plurality of network participants is one of an internet service subscriber, a network application and a user of a computing device in a network.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein the content source website of the plurality of content source websites is one of a web site, a file server, a network server, a software application server, and an operator of the content source website.

18. The system of claim 14, wherein the exchange of the profile data through the token between the network participant and the content source website is independent of a usage pattern and information registered by the network participant at the content source website.

19. The system of claim 14, wherein the fee of the network participant is transferred to a third party specified as a recipient by the network participant.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the third party is specified as the recipient using the web beacon.

21. The system of claim 19, wherein the third party is specified as the recipient using a widget, wherein the widget is a software component installed on the network participant.

22. A computer program product embodied on a computer readable medium for secure exchange of a profile data of a network participant between the network participant and a plurality of content source websites, the computer program product comprising a program module having instructions for:

registering the profile data by the network participant with a privacy control unit, wherein the profile data comprises a plurality of attributes;

assigning privacy levels to each of the plurality of attributes by the network participant;

distributing a token to the network participant by the privacy control unit, the token serving as a proxy for the profile data of the network participant and the privacy levels assigned to each of the plurality of attributes;

routing the token through a web beacon in a content source website of the plurality of content source websites to the privacy control unit upon the network participant accessing the content source website of the plurality of content source websites;

generating a report for research and for targeting promotion campaigns to the network participant by using the token, wherein the report is generated by the privacy control unit; and

charging the content source website through an invoice generated by the privacy control unit for providing the report and empowering communications, wherein a portion of the invoice is provided as a fee to the network participant for providing the profile data to the content source website and responding to the communications from the content source website through the privacy control unit.

23. The computer program product of claim 22, wherein targeting promotion campaigns to the network participant is done by computing a relevancy score for the network participant.

24. The computer program product of claim 22, wherein the fee of the network participant is transferred to a third party using a widget, wherein the widget is a software component installed on the network participant.

25. The computer program product of claim 22, wherein the web beacon provides the privacy control unit with at least one of the token, browser statistics of the network participant, recipient of the fee to the network participant, and information about an organization that deployed the web beacon.

26. The computer program product of claim 22, further comprising calculating and communicating the fees applicable for registering and managing the profile data and responding to the targeted promotion campaigns through the privacy control unit.

27. The computer program product of claim 22, wherein the network participant is one of an internet service subscriber, a network application and a user of a computing device in a network.

28. The computer program product of claim 22, wherein the network participant is the user of the computing device in the network and the user is capable of accessing the content source website through a plurality of computing devices in the network, and wherein a token corresponding to each of the plurality of computing devices corresponds to the profile data.

29. The computer program product of claim 22, wherein the content source website of the plurality of content source websites is one of a web site, a file server, a network server and an operator of the content source website.

30. The computer program product of claim 22, wherein the exchange of the profile data using the token through the privacy control unit between the network participant and the content source website is independent of a usage pattern of the network participant and information registered by the network participant at the content source website.

31. The computer program product of claim 23, further comprising auditing a quality of the profile data by the content source website for evaluating the legitimacy of the profile data.