METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR USING PSEUDONYMS

• US 20100285774A1
• Filed: 05/07/2009
• Published: 11/11/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/07/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nokia Corporation
• Inventors: GINZBOORG, Philip
• Granted Patent: US 8,571,519 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/411
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/42 Anonymization, e.g. involving pseudonyms
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/80 Wireless
• 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 63/104 Grouping of entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/088 Usage controlling of secret information, e.g. techniques for restricting cryptographic keys to pre-authorized uses, different access levels, validity of crypto-period, different key- or password length, or different strong and weak cryptographic algorithms network architectures or network communication protocols for using time-dependent keys in a packet data network H04L63/068
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0891 Revocation or update of secret information, e.g. encryption key update or rekeying
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3297 involving time stamps, e.g. generation of time stamps
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/02 Protecting privacy or anonymity, e.g. protecting personally identifiable information [PII]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/08 Access security
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/12 Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks

Abstract

An approach is provided for using pseudonyms to protect privacy and anonymity of communication messages. A pseudonym is extracted from a received message for comparison against a precomputed set of pseudonyms associated respectively with a plurality of communities of wireless nodes. The pseudonyms are valid only for a particular time period.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a message corresponding to one of a plurality of communities of wireless nodes;

extracting a pseudonym from the message;

comparing the extracted pseudonym with a precomputed set of pseudonyms associated respectively with the communities; and

determining a particular one of the communities based on the comparison,

wherein the precomputed set of pseudonyms is valid for a particular time period.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of pseudonyms is precomputable and storable by each wireless node within the plurality of communities.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of pseudonyms is computed based on a fixed time reference common to the wireless nodes within the plurality of communities.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

computing a new set of pseudonyms before the precomputed set of pseudonyms expires.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

initiating storage of a plurality of sets of pseudonyms corresponding to different time periods;

determining one of the time periods in which the message was sent;

selecting one of the sets of pseudonyms corresponding to the determined time period from among the plurality of stored sets of pseudonyms;

comparing the extracted pseudonym with the selected set of pseudonyms; and

determining the particular one of the communities based on the comparison.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein extracting the pseudonym comprises deriving an index from the message.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein comparing the extracted pseudonym with a precomputed set of pseudonym associated respectively with the communities comprises comparing the extracted pseudonym only with those precomputed pseudonyms that are associated with the index.

8. An apparatus comprising:

at least one processor; and

at least one memory including computer program code,

the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to perform at the following,

receive a message corresponding to one of a plurality of communities of wireless nodes,

extract a pseudonym from the message,

compare the extracted pseudonym with a precomputed set of pseudonyms associated respectively with the communities, and

determine a particular one of the communities based on the comparison,

wherein the precomputed set of pseudonyms is valid for a particular time period.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the set of pseudonyms is precomputable and storable by each wireless node within the plurality of communities.

10. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the set of pseudonyms is computed based on a fixed time reference common to the wireless nodes within the plurality of communities.

11. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the apparatus is further caused to:

compute a new set of pseudonyms before the precomputed set of pseudonyms expires.

12. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the apparatus is further caused to:

initiate storage of a plurality of sets of pseudonyms corresponding to different time periods;

determine one of the time periods in which the message was sent;

select one of the sets of pseudonyms corresponding to the determined time period from among the plurality of stored sets of pseudonyms;

compare the extracted pseudonym with the selected set of pseudonyms; and

determine the particular one of the communities based on the comparison.

13. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein extracting the pseudonym comprises:

deriving an index from the message.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein comparing the extracted pseudonym with a precomputed set of pseudonym associated respectively with the communities comprises comparing the extracted pseudonym only with those precomputed pseudonyms that are associated with the index.

15. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the apparatus is a mobile phone further comprising:

user interface circuitry and user interface software configured to facilitate user control of at least some functions of the mobile phone through use of a display and configured to respond to user input; and

a display and display circuitry configured to display at least a portion of a user interface of the mobile phone, the display and display circuitry configured to facilitate user control of at least some functions of the mobile phone.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the mobile phone comprises a radio for device-to-device communication.

17. A method comprising:

selecting a pseudonym from a precomputed set of pseudonyms;

generating a message comprising the pseudonym or an index pointing to the pseudonym corresponding to one of a plurality of communities of wireless nodes; and

initiating transmission of the message to a plurality of wireless nodes,

wherein the precomputed set of pseudonyms is valid for a particular time period.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein each wireless node within the community individually precomputes and stores the set of pseudonyms locally.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the set of pseudonyms is computed based on a fixed time reference common to all wireless nodes within the plurality of communities.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein the index is calculated using a hash function based on the pseudonym.