IDENTITY INFORMATION SERVICES, METHODS, DEVICES, AND SYSTEMS BACKGROUND

• US 20080109875A1
• Filed: 08/08/2007
• Published: 05/08/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/08/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: MyPublicInfo, Inc. (BrightStar Information Technology Group, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: MyPublicInfo, Inc. (BrightStar Information Technology Group, Inc.)
• Inventors: Kraft, Harold
• Application Number:
  US11/835,701
• Publication Number:
  US 20080109875A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/2
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6245 Protecting personal data, e.g. for financial or medical purposes

Abstract

A system provides various features for facilitating the management of data used for facilitating trust, identity and information verification between transacting partiesp.

Claims

1. A method of providing a report of information, relating to an individual and stored on a data source used to facilitate trust between parties to a transaction involving the individual, comprising:

generating a user interface to allow customers to obtain personal information about themselves that are stored at publicly-available data sources;

said user interface permitting customers of a service to enter identifying information and authenticating information;

at least a network server, authenticating a user and storing corresponding identifying information pertaining to said user;

at least a network server, querying, based on said identifying information, an aggregator data source containing records derived from a primary data source and retrieving aggregator records resulting from said first step of querying;

at least a network server, querying, based on said identifying information, said primary data source and retrieving primary records resulting from said second step of querying;

generating a report containing said primary and aggregator records in a format that allows comparison by a user;

at least one of said primary and aggregator records pertaining to a same person, event, and/or thing and containing redundant information unless a discrepancy between at least a corresponding portion of each of said primary and aggregator records exists.

2. A method as in claim 1, wherein said step of generating further comprises including in said report at least one instruction for repairing a discrepancy between two pieces of information.

3. A method as in claim 2, wherein said step of generating further comprises including in said report at least one computer decodable link to a control or web site with information about how to respond to a discrepancy between two pieces of information in said report.

4. A method as in claim 3, wherein said decodable link to a control or web site with information is provided in said report adjacent records containing information from both primary and aggregator records that may pertain to a same person, event, and/or thing.

5. A method as in claim 1, wherein said step of generating includes identifying records retrieved in said first and second steps of retrieving that correspond to a same person, event, and/or thing and formatting said report responsively to a result of said identifying.

6. A method as in claim 5, wherein said step of formatting includes aligning discrepant portions of said records in adjacent positions in said report.

7. A method of providing a report of information, relating to an individual and stored on a data source used to facilitate trust between parties to a transaction involving the individual, comprising:

from at least a network server, transmitting a form with fields for obtaining identifying information, identifying said individual, to a client terminal;

receiving at least a network server from said client terminal, identifying information associated with said form fields, said identifying information substantially uniquely identifying said individual;

at least a network server, authenticating a requester at said client terminal to confirm that said requester is said individual;

at least a network server, performing a process including querying the data source, said process resulting in a final set of records resulting from said querying and pertaining to said identifying information;

said process being such that said final set includes records satisfying a strict matching criterion and records not satisfying said strict matching criterion, but satisfying a less strict matching criterion, when records in said data source include less than a predetermined number satisfying said strict matching criterion, but includes only records satisfying said strict matching criterion when records in said data source include at least a predetermined number satisfying said strict matching criterion;

generating at least a network server, a report including data from said final set of records.

8. A method as in claim 7, wherein said process includes querying said data source with a first strict criterion and counting a number of records retrieved then querying said data source with a second less strict criterion when said number of records is less than a predetermined number.

9. A method as in claim 7, wherein all records in said final set correspond to a result of a same query, whereby no records are arbitrarily excluded from said final set.

10. A method as in claim 7, wherein said strict matching criterion includes a full address and said less strict matching criterion includes only a partial address.

11. A method as in claim 7, wherein said partial address has no street portion of an address.

12. A method of providing a report of information, relating to an individual and stored on a data source used to facilitate trust between parties to a transaction involving the individual, comprising:

from at least a network server, transmitting a form with fields for obtaining identifying information, identifying said individual, to a client terminal;

receiving at least a network server from said client terminal, identifying information associated with said form fields, said identifying information substantially uniquely identifying said individual;

at least a network server, authenticating a requester at said client terminal to confirm that said requester is said individual;

at least a network server, querying the data source and retrieving a final set of records resulting from said querying and pertaining to said identifying information;

said final set including records corresponding to a result of a narrow query and a broad query when the number of records in said data source satisfying said broad query is less than a predetermined number;

generating at least a network server, a report including data from said final set of records;

transmitting said report to a client terminal.

13. A method as in claim 12, wherein said report includes a list of criteria satisfied by records reported therein such that said list includes, correspondingly, a specification of both said narrow and broad queries or only a specification of said narrow query.

14. A method as in claim 12, wherein said step of querying includes iteratively querying said data source until said predetermined number is reached.

15. A method of providing a report of information, relating to an individual and stored on a data source used to facilitate trust between parties to a transaction involving the individual, comprising:

from at least a network server, transmitting a form with fields for obtaining identifying information, identifying said individual, to a client terminal;

receiving at least a network server from said client terminal, identifying information associated with said form fields, said identifying information substantially uniquely identifying said individual;

at least a network server, authenticating a requester at said client terminal to confirm that said requester is said individual;

at least a network server, querying the data source and retrieving a final set of records resulting from said querying and pertaining to said identifying information;

determining if a predetermined number of records has been obtained;

at least one of querying an additional data source or querying, based on a less strict query, a same data source when less than said predetermined number is determined;

generating at least a network server, a report including data from said final set of records;

transmitting said report to a client terminal.

16. A method as in claim 15, wherein said report includes a list of criteria satisfied by records reported therein such that said list includes, correspondingly, a specification of both said narrow and broad queries or only a specification of said narrow query.

17. A method as in claim 15, wherein said report includes a list of data sources accessed to generate said report.