Selective use of anonymous proxies

• US 20080235385A1
• Filed: 03/22/2007
• Published: 09/25/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 03/22/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Li, Richard Ding
• Granted Patent: US 8,301,787 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/229
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0218 Distributed architectures, e.g. distributed firewalls
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0421 Anonymous communication, i.e. the party's identifiers are hidden from the other party or parties, e.g. using an anonymizer
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/63 Routing a service request depending on the request content or context

Abstract

A method and apparatus for selectively using an anonymous proxy. A user request for content is received. A determination is made as to whether the user request satisfies context criteria. When the user request satisfies the context criteria, the user request is forwarded to an anonymous proxy. When the user request does not satisfy the context criteria, the request is sent directly to a content provider.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

receiving a user request for content, the user request including user identifying information;

determining whether the user request satisfies context criteria;

forwarding the user request to an anonymous proxy if the user request satisfies the context criteria; and

sending the user request directly to a content provider if the user request does not satisfy the context criteria.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the context criteria are satisfied if the content provider has specific characteristics.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein one of the specific characteristics includes a website type.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the user request is forwarded to the anonymous proxy when the website type is a search site.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein one of the specific characteristics includes a degree of trustworthiness.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the user request is forwarded to the anonymous proxy when the content provider does not have a high degree of trustworthiness.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the context criteria are satisfied if the user request was made in association with a search function.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the user request is forwarded to the anonymous proxy automatically without user input.

9. A machine-accessible medium including data that, when accessed by a machine, cause the machine to perform a method comprising:

receiving a user request for content, the user request including user identifying information;

determining whether the user request satisfies context criteria;

forwarding the user request to an anonymous proxy if the user request satisfies the context criteria; and

sending the user request directly to a content provider if the user request does not satisfy the context criteria.

10. The machine-accessible medium of claim 9, wherein the context criteria are satisfied if the content provider has specific characteristics.

11. The machine-accessible medium of claim 10, wherein one of the specific characteristics includes a website type.

12. The machine-accessible medium of claim 11, wherein the user request is forwarded to the anonymous proxy when the website type is a search site.

13. The machine-accessible medium of claim 10, wherein one of the specific characteristics includes a degree of trustworthiness.

14. The machine-accessible medium of claim 13, wherein the user request is forwarded to the anonymous proxy when the content provider does not have a high degree of trustworthiness.

15. The machine-accessible medium of claim 9, wherein the context criteria are satisfied if the user request was made in association with a search function.

16. The machine-accessible medium of claim 9, wherein the user request is forwarded to the anonymous proxy automatically without user input.

17. An apparatus, comprising:

a filtering logic configured to determine whether a user request for content satisfies context criteria; and

a forwarding logic configured to forward the user request to an anonymous proxy if the user request satisfies the context criteria, and to send the user request directly to a content provider if the user request does not satisfy the context criteria.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the context criteria are satisfied if the content provider has specific characteristics.

19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the context criteria are satisfied if the content provider is a search site.

20. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the context criteria are satisfied if the user request was made in association with a search function.