METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROTECTING THE PRIVACY OF RESPONDER INFORMATION

• US 20100161490A1
• Filed: 12/18/2008
• Published: 06/24/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/18/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: GM Global Technology Operations LLC (General Motors Company)
• Original Assignee: GM Global Technology Operations Incorporated (General Motors Company)
• Inventors: Alrabady, Ansaf I., Huntzicker, Fred W.
• Granted Patent: US 8,468,097 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/50
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 2220/10 Usage protection of distributed data files
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/016 After-sales
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0185 Product, service or business identity fraud
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0609 Buyer or seller confidence or verification
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/08 Access security
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/10 Small scale networks; Flat hierarchical networks

Abstract

A device, such as a vehicle, and a method within the device are provided for protecting the privacy of device specific information. The method includes the steps of detecting a beacon transmitted by an association requestor, determining whether the association requestor is an authorized requester by determining whether a present parameter falls within a range of authorized parameters associated with the association requester, and transmitting the device specific information to the authorized requester only if the present parameter falls within the range of authorized requester parameters.

Claims

1. A method in a device for protecting the privacy of device specific information, the method comprising the steps of:

detecting a beacon transmitted by an association requester;

determining whether the association requestor is an authorized requestor by determining whether a present parameter falls within a range of authorized requestor parameters associated with the association requester; and

transmitting a probe request including the device specific information to the authorized requestor only if the present parameter falls within the range of authorized requestor parameters.

2. The method in accordance with claim 1 wherein the present parameter is a present time when the beacon is detected.

3. The method in accordance with claim 1 wherein the present parameter is a present location when the beacon is detected.

4. A method in a vehicle for securely transmitting vehicle specific information, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving an association request from a requestor;

determining whether the requestor is an authorized facility by determining whether a present parameter falls within a range of authorized facility parameters; and

transmitting the vehicle specific information to the authorized facility only if the present parameter falls within the range of authorized facility parameters.

5. The method in accordance with claim 4 wherein the step of determining whether the present parameter falls within the range of authorized facility parameters comprises the steps of:

retrieving predetermined authorized facility information;

generating the range of authorized facility parameters in response to the predetermined authorized facility information; and

determining whether the present parameter falls within the range of authorized facility parameters.

6. The method in accordance with claim 5 wherein the step of retrieving predetermined authorized facility information comprises the step of retrieving daily opening and closing information for the authorized facility, and wherein the step of generating the range of authorized facility parameters comprises the step of generating operating times during which the authorized facility is open for business, and wherein the determining step determines whether a present time is within the operating times during which the authorized facility is open for business.

7. The method in accordance with claim 6 wherein the association request includes service set identifier information corresponding to the authorized facility, and wherein the step of retrieving the daily opening and closing information for the authorized facility comprises the step of retrieving the daily opening and closing information for the authorized facility in response to the service set identifier information.

8. The method in accordance with claim 5 wherein the step of generating the range of authorized facility parameters comprises the step of generating the range of authorized facility parameters in response to the predetermined authorized facility information and a predetermined allowable error.

9. The method in accordance with claim 8 wherein the step of retrieving predetermined authorized facility information comprises the step of retrieving a location of the authorized facility as the predetermined authorized facility information and retrieving an allowable radius as the predetermined allowable error, and wherein the determining step determines whether a present location is within the allowable radius of the location of the authorized facility.

10. The method in accordance with claim 9 wherein the association request includes service set identifier information corresponding to the authorized facility, and wherein the step of retrieving the location of the authorized facility and the allowable radius comprises the step of retrieving the location of the authorized facility and the allowable radius in response to the service set identifier information.

11. The method in accordance with claim 5 wherein the predetermined authorized facility information is stored in the vehicle during manufacture thereof.

12. The method in accordance with claim 5 wherein the predetermined authorized facility information is stored in the vehicle as part of navigation map data stored in the vehicle.

13. The method in accordance with claim 5 wherein the predetermined authorized facility information is received by the vehicle in a securely signed message and stored in the vehicle.

14. The method in accordance with claim 13 wherein the securely signed message is received by the vehicle as part of a beacon transmission transmitted by the authorized facility.

15. A vehicle comprising:

transceiver circuitry including receiver circuitry and transmitter circuitry;

a memory for storing predetermined authorized facility information;

a controller coupled to the receiver circuitry for receiving information transmitted by an association requestor, the controller further coupled to the memory and determining whether the association requestor is an authorized facility by determining whether a present parameter measured by the controller falls within a range of authorized facility parameters in response to the predetermined authorized facility information, wherein the controller provides vehicle specific information to the transmitter circuitry for forwarding to the authorized facility only if the controller has determined that the present parameter falls within the range of authorized facility parameters.

16. The vehicle in accordance with claim 15 further comprising a clock for generating present time information indicating a present time, wherein the controller is coupled to the clock for generating the present parameter in response to the present time, and wherein the predetermined authorized facility information includes daily opening and closing information for the authorized facility, and wherein the information received by the receiver circuitry includes service set identifier information corresponding to the authorized facility, the controller generating the range of authorized facility parameters by generating operating times during which the authorized facility is open for business in response to the service set identifier information and then determining whether the present time is within the operating times during which the authorized facility is open for business.

17. The vehicle in accordance with claim 15 further comprising Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver circuitry for generating a present location in response to signals received thereby, wherein the controller is coupled to the GPS receiver circuitry for generating the present parameter in response to the present location, and wherein the predetermined authorized facility information includes a location of the authorized facility and an allowable radius, and wherein the information received by the receiver circuitry includes service set identifier information corresponding to the authorized facility, the controller generating the range of authorized facility parameters by generating locations within the allowable radius of the location of the authorized facility in response to the service set identifier information and then determining whether the present location is within the locations within the allowable radius of the location of the authorized facility.

18. The vehicle in accordance with claim 15 further comprising a navigation device for providing navigational assistance to a user of the vehicle, the navigation device including a navigation memory for storing navigation map data, wherein the controller is coupled to the navigation memory for retrieving the authorized facility information therefrom.

19. The vehicle in accordance with claim 15 wherein the receiver circuitry receives a message including the predetermined authorized facility information, and wherein the controller stores the predetermined authorized facility information from the message to the memory in response to determining that the message is a securely signed message.

20. The vehicle in accordance with claim 15 wherein the receiver circuitry receives the predetermined authorized facility information in a beacon transmission, and wherein the controller decodes the predetermined authorized facility information from the beacon transmission and stores the predetermined authorized facility information to the memory in response to determining that the beacon transmission is a beacon transmission transmitted by the authorized facility.