PRIVACY METHOD, DEVICE AND COMPUTER PROGRAM

• US 20080122580A1
• Filed: 11/23/2007
• Published: 05/29/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 11/23/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: O'Connor, Luke James, Kenyon, Christopher Mark, Karjoth, Guenter
• Granted Patent: US 8,786,405 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/10.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6245 Protecting personal data, e.g. for financial or medical purposes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/79 in semiconductor storage media, e.g. directly-addressable memories
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/85 interconnection devices, e.g. bus-connected or in-line devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2115 Third party
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/42 Anonymization, e.g. involving pseudonyms
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/805 Lightweight hardware, e.g. radio-frequency identification [RFID] or sensor
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/10 for controlling access to devices or network resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3271 using challenge-response

Abstract

The present invention relates to a privacy method for responding to read request. The present invention further relates to a device for generating a response signal and a computer program product. Methods and systems in accordance with embodiments of the invention validate, whether a read request is directed at a target tag to be protected, and, upon a match, respond to the read request by sending a response signal.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented privacy method, comprising

reading at least one data value characteristic for a target tag that is to be protected,

detecting a read request satisfying a specified condition,

validating, if the read request is directed at the target tag, and

responding to the read request by sending a response signal if the read request is directed at the target tag, such that the response signal collides with a further response signal of the target tag.

2. The privacy method according to claim 1, wherein,

in the step of reading, a target tag identifier of the target tag is read,

in the step of detecting, a read request comprising a specified prefix is detected, and,

in the step of validating, the specified prefix is compared with the target tag identifier.

3. The privacy method according to claim 2, further comprising

generating a first set of tag identifiers,

comparing the specified prefix with all tag identifiers of the first set of tag identifiers, and

responding to the read request by sending a response signal if the specified prefix matches at least one of the target tag identifier and any one of the tag identifiers of the first set of tag identifiers.

4. The privacy method according to claim 3, wherein

the first set of tag identifiers is generated based on a random distribution of tag identifiers.

5. The privacy method according to claim 3, wherein

the first set of tag identifiers is generated based on data associated with the target tag identifier.

6. The privacy method according to claim 3, wherein

the first set of tag identifiers is based on a user selected profile.

7. The privacy method according to claim 3, further comprising

detecting a change of a read situation, and

regenerating the first set of tag identifiers for each detected read situation.

8. The privacy method according to claim 7, wherein

the change of the read situation is detected if no read request is received within a given time period.

9. The privacy method according to claim 7, wherein

the change of the read situation is indicated by user input.

10. The privacy method according to claim 3, further comprising

specifying a second set of tag identifiers which are not to be disturbed, wherein tag identifiers in the second set are excluded from the first set.

11. A privacy device, comprising

a tag reader adapted to read a target tag identifier of a target tag to be protected,

a memory device, operationally connected to the tag reader and adapted to store at least one read target tag identifier,

a read request detector, adapted to detect a read request comprising a prefix,

a comparator, operationally connected to the memory device and the read request detector and adapted to compare one or more tag identifiers stored in the memory device with a prefix of the detected read request, and

a response signal generator, operationally connected to the comparator and adapted to generate a response signal if a comparison performed by the comparator results in a match.

12. The privacy device according to claim 11, further comprising

a tag identifier generator adapted to generate a first set of tag identifiers and store the first set of tag identifiers in the memory device.

13. The privacy device according to claim 11, further comprising

a profile selector adapted to select a profile associated with a first set of tag identifiers.

14. A computer program device readable by machine and storing a program instructions that, on execution using a processing device of a privacy device perform the steps of:

reading at least one target tag identifier of a target tag to be protected,

detecting a read request satisfying a specified condition,

validating, if the read request is directed at the target tag, and

responding to the read request by sending a response signal if the read request is directed at the target tag, such that the response signal collides with a further response signal of the target tag.