UNIFIED IDENTITY VERIFICATION

• US 20090106150A1
• Filed: 12/21/2007
• Published: 04/23/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/19/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: PayPal, Inc. (PayPal Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: eBay Inc.
• Inventors: Balasubramanian, Girish, Mahadevan, Rohan, Pelegero, Rene M.
• Granted Patent: US 8,214,291 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/44
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/31 User authentication
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/10 specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/385 using an alias or single-use codes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/40 Authorisation, e.g. identification of payer or payee, verification of customer or shop credentials; Review and approval of payers, e.g. check credit lines or negative lists
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/083 using passwords cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication using a predetermined code H04L9/3226
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/102 Entity profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles

Abstract

Apparatus, systems, and methods are disclosed that operate to register one time, at a financial entity, information comprising an identity uniquely associated with an individual having a financial account held by the financial entity. Additional actions include receiving a request at the financial entity from a requesting party to authenticate a customer purporting to be the individual, authenticating, by the financial entity, the customer as the individual by matching a token presented by the customer to the identity uniquely associated with the individual, and providing to the requesting party a previously-authorized portion of a profile associated with the individual. Additional apparatus, systems, and methods are disclosed.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

registering one time, at a financial entity, information comprising an identity uniquely associated with an individual having a financial account held by the financial entity;

receiving a request at the financial entity from a requesting party to authenticate a customer purporting to be the individual;

authenticating, by the financial entity, the customer as the individual by matching a token presented by the customer to the identity uniquely associated with the individual; and

providing to the requesting party a portion of a profile associated with the individual, which the individual previously authorized the financial entity to share.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein registering comprises:

obtaining, verifying, and recording the information according to at least one of customer identification program (CIP) requirements, Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements, Know Your Business (KYB) requirements, or watch-list scanning requirements, wherein the information comprises at least one of a name of the individual, a birth date of the individual, a physical address associated with the individual, or an identification number associated with the individual.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein registering comprises:

obtaining, verifying, and recording a prior verification associated with the customer by the financial entity against at least one of customer identification program (CIP) requirements, Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements, Know Your Business (KYB) requirements, or watch-list scanning requirements.

4. The computer implemented method of claim 1, comprising:

generating the token by the financial entity upon request by the individual; and

transmitting the token to the individual.

5. The computer implemented method of claim 4, comprising:

generating the token having at least one of an expiration time period after which presentation of the token by the customer is ineffective, a selected number of requesting parties to which the token may be presented, a selected number of times the token may be presented, or named requesting parties to whom the token may be presented.

6. The computer implemented method of claim 4, wherein transmitting comprises:

sending an email message including the token to the individual.

7. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the requesting party comprises:

one of a vendor and another financial entity.

8. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the requesting party comprises a bank, comprising:

receiving funds from the customer; and

establishing an account at the bank associated with the individual to hold the funds without receiving any further information from the customer.

9. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the requesting party comprises a vendor, comprising:

receiving an amount associated with a transaction associated with the vendor; and

substantially simultaneously extending credit to the customer by the financial entity, on behalf of the vendor, based on the authenticating.

10. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein receiving the request comprises:

receiving a message from the requesting party at the financial entity via a global computer network.

11. The computer implemented method of claim 1, comprising:

notifying the requesting party that the customer has been authenticated as the individual by sending a message to the requesting party via a global computer network.

12. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

receiving a token presented by a customer;

transmitting a request to a financial entity to authenticate the customer purporting to be an individual; and

receiving notification, from the financial entity, that the customer is authenticated as the individual based on matching the token to an identity that has been registered with the financial entity and is uniquely associated with the individual.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein receiving comprises:

receiving a password entry at a terminal.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein receiving comprises:

receiving the token in conjunction with permission to receive additional information associated with the individual.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 14, wherein the additional information comprises:

at least one of a name of the individual, a birth date of the individual, a physical address associated with the individual, or an identification number associated with the individual.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein the financial entity comprises a bank.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein the requesting party comprises a vendor, comprising:

substantially simultaneously extending credit to the customer by the vendor, responsive to the authenticating.

18. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, comprising:

automatically transferring an amount to be paid from an account associated with the individual and held by the financial entity directly to an account associated with the requesting party.

19. An apparatus, comprising:

a user input device;

a client module to communicatively couple to a server at a financial entity; and

an authentication request module to receive a token presented by a customer, to transmit a request to the financial entity to authenticate the customer purporting to be an individual, and to receive notification, from the financial entity, that the customer is authenticated as the individual based on matching the token to an identity that has been registered with the financial entity and is uniquely associated with the individual.

20. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the user input device comprises at least one of a keypad, a thumbwheel, a touch screen, a button, or a voice recognition processor.

21. The apparatus of claim 19, comprising:

a point of sale terminal to house the user input device.

22. A system, comprising:

a server to communicatively couple to a global computer network; and

an authentication module to receive a request from a requesting party, the request including a token presented by a customer, to authenticate the customer purporting to be an individual, and to send notification that the customer is authenticated as the individual based on matching the token to an identity that has been registered with a financial entity and is uniquely associated with the individual.

23. The system of claim 22, comprising:

a point of sale terminal associated with the requesting party, wherein the point of sale terminal is to receive the token, and to be communicatively coupled to the server.

24. The system of claim 22, comprising:

a storage device to couple to the server and to store a database having a plurality of registered identities, including the identity.

25. A machine-readable medium comprising instructions, which when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform the following operations:

registering one time, at a financial entity, information comprising an identity uniquely associated with an individual having a financial account held by the financial entity;

receiving a request at the financial entity from a requesting party to authenticate a customer purporting to be the individual; and

authenticating, by the financial entity, the customer as the individual by matching a token presented by the customer to the identity uniquely associated with the individual.

26. The machine-readable medium of claim 25, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform the following operations:

storing the information in an authentication database, linked to but physically separate from, a database of accounts including the financial account.

27. The machine-readable medium of claim 25, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform the following operations:

sending a message to a mobile device associated with the customer that the authenticating has been successful.

28. The machine-readable medium of claim 27, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform the following operations:

requesting, if the authenticating is not successful, additional information from the customer.