METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR APPLYING PRIVACY POLICIES TO STRUCTURED DATA

• US 20120110680A1
• Filed: 10/29/2010
• Published: 05/03/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/29/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nokia Corporation
• Inventors: Oliver, Ian Justin, Boldyrev, Sergey, Kaaja, Jari-Jukka Harald, Jantunen, Joni Jorma Marius
• Granted Patent: US 9,727,751 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/30
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6245 Protecting personal data, e.g. for financial or medical purposes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/102 Entity profiles

Abstract

An approach is provided for applying privacy policies to structured data. A privacy policy management infrastructure receives a request for an exchange of structured data among a plurality of devices. The privacy policy management infrastructure determines one or more elements of the structured data. The privacy policy management infrastructure also determines one or more privacy policies corresponding to the structured data, respective ones of the one or more elements, or a combination thereof. The privacy policy management infrastructure further determines to apply the one or more privacy policies to the structured data, respective ones of the one or more elements, or a combination thereof when initiating the exchange.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a request for an exchange of structured data among a plurality of devices;

determining one or more elements of the structured data;

determining one or more privacy policies corresponding to the structured data, respective ones of the one or more elements, or a combination thereof;

determining to apply the one or more privacy policies to the structured data, respective ones of the one or more elements, or a combination thereof when initiating the exchange.

2. A method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining to generate one or more tokens corresponding to at least one or more of the privacy policies; and

determining to associate the one or more tokens with the structured data, respective ones of the one or more elements, or a combination thereof.

3. A method of claim 2, further comprising:

determining to serialize at least a portion of the one or more privacy policies as one or more tuples,

wherein the one or more tuples represent the one or more tokens.

4. A method of claim 2, further comprising:

determining to validate the one or more tokens; and

determining to grant access to the associated structured data, the associated respective ones of the one or more elements, or a combination thereof based, at least in part, on the validation.

5. A method of claim 2, further comprising:

determining to perform a comparison of at least one of the one or more tokens associated with one of the plurality of devices and at least another one of the one or more tokens associated with one or more other ones of the plurality of devices;

determining access to the structured data, the one or more elements, or a combination thereof based, at least in part, on the comparison.

6. A method of claim 1, wherein the request further specifies an intermediate device, the method further comprising:

determining to apply the one or more privacy policies to initiate tunneling of the structured data, the one or more elements, or a combination thereof through the intermediate device to facilitate the exchange.

7. A method of claim 1, wherein the determining to apply the one or more privacy policies comprises at least one of:

determining to filter at least one of the one or more elements from the exchange based, at least in part, on the privacy policy; and

determining to annotate at least one of the one or more elements based, at least in part, on the privacy policy.

8. A method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining to transmit at least one of the one or more privacy policies to one or more of the plurality of devices separately from the exchange.

9. A method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the one or more privacy policies is associated with a list of participating devices, the method further comprising:

determining whether at least one of the plurality of devices is on the list, wherein the exchange is based, at least in part, on the determination with respect to the list.

10. A method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving feedback information from at least one of the plurality of devices regarding application of at least one of the one or more privacy policies, the exchange, or a combination thereof.

11. A method of claim 1, wherein the one or more privacy policies are associated with at least one of the plurality of devices.

12. A method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the one or more privacy policies is associated with one or more memory locations of at least one of the plurality of devices.

13. A method of claim 1, wherein the determining to apply the one or more privacy policies occurs at a protocol stack layer, a physical layer, or a combination thereof of the exchange.

14. A method of claim 1, wherein the exchange includes a transmission, a reception, or a combination thereof of the structured data or at least one of the one or more elements.

15. A method of claim 1, wherein the exchange occurs, at least in part, over a radio-frequency memory system.

16. A method of claim 1, wherein the one or more privacy policies relate to one or more access rights, one or more visibility rights, or a combination thereof.

17. An apparatus comprising:

at least one processor; and

at least one memory including computer program code for one or more programs, the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to perform at least the following,

receive a request for an exchange of structured data among a plurality of devices;

determine one or more elements of the structured data;

determine one or more privacy policies corresponding to the structured data, respective ones of the one or more elements, or a combination thereof;

determine to apply the one or more privacy policies to the structured data, respective ones of the one or more elements, or a combination thereof when initiating the exchange.

18. An apparatus of claim 17, wherein the apparatus is further caused to:

determine to generate one or more tokens corresponding to at least one or more of the privacy policies; and

determine to associate the one or more tokens with the structured data, respective ones of the one or more elements, or a combination thereof.

19. An apparatus of claim 18, wherein the apparatus is further caused to:

determine to serialize at least a portion of the one or more privacy policies as one or more tuples,

wherein the one or more tuples represent the one or more tokens.

20. An apparatus of claim 18, wherein the apparatus is further caused to:

determine to validate the one or more tokens; and

determine to grant access to the associated structured data, the associated respective ones of the one or more elements, or a combination thereof based, at least in part, on the validation.

21-68. -68. (canceled)