Barcode and cellphone for privacy and anonymity

• US 20130086465A1
• Filed: 10/04/2011
• Published: 04/04/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 10/04/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Wesley Boudville
• Original Assignee: Wesley Boudville
• Inventors: Boudville, Wesley John
• Granted Patent: US 8,707,163 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/234
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3276 using a pictured code, e.g. barcode or QR-code, being read by the M-device
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/382 insuring higher security of transaction
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 19/201 Accessories of ATMs

Abstract

A user with a mobile device (e.g. cellphone) can transfer sensitive data to her device from another computer, where the latter might be a computer in a bank, or associated with a bank, like an Automated Teller Machine. The external computer has a screen that shows data, encoded in a barcode. The user'"'"'s device has a camera that can take an image of the barcode and decode it. If there is too much data to be encoded in a single barcode, they could be encoded in several barcodes, which are then played on a computer screen and imaged by the user'"'"'s device. The user avoids directly accessing the transmitting device on the Internet, for improved anonymity and privacy. The data that is transferred might be keys to a symmetric cryptosystem, or a one time pad, to encrypt a future interaction between the user and the other entity.

Claims

1. A system of a user (“

Jane”

) with a cellphone with a camera and software that decodes a barcode, and a second computer;

where Jane accesses the second computer and inputs data which it combines with internal data and external data from a network, to make barcode output on an electronic screen;

where if the output is too large for one barcode, then several barcodes are made and displayed;

where Jane takes image/s of the barcode/s with her cellphone, which are then decoded.

2. The system of claim 1, where the second computer has a holder in which Jane can place her cellphone;

where the holder aligns the cellphone'"'"'s camera to focus on the barcode/s.

3. The method of claim 1, where the data that Jane inputs on the second computer is any combination of a username, password and network address (or URL).

4. The method of claim 1, where the output data is a webpage in a browser on the second computer, and a browser plug-in reads the data and makes barcode/s to be shown in a popup window or second webpage.

5. The method of claim 4, where the plug-in encodes the entire source code of the webpage being shown in the browser.

6. The method of claim 4, where the plug-in downloads any images referenced in the webpage to the second computer, and encodes these as barcodes;

where if a downloaded image is greater than some size, it is converted to a lower resolution image before being made into a barcode;

modifies a copy of the source code of the webpage to reference the images as local, before making barcode/s of the source; and

displays all the barcodes in a browser popup window or second webpage.

7. The method of claim 4, where the plug-in modifies the source code of the webpage to comment out any tags referring to assets on the Internet;

optionally using custom labels in the enclosing comment tags.

8. The method of claim 7, where Jane'"'"'s phone browser detects the custom comment tags, and applies a blacklist or whitelist on the phone against the addresses in the commented out tags, to decide whether to uncomment in the phone browser.

9. The method of claim 4, where a referenced audio file is downloaded and converted to barcode/s;

where the source code of the webpage is modified to refer to the audio as local.

10. The method of claim 4, where a referenced audio file is downloaded and an Automatic Speech Recogniser is run against it to convert to text;

where the text is written into the source code of the webpage, in place of the referenced audio, before the webpage is converted to barcode/s.

11. The method of claim 4, where the plug-in lets Jane indicate a region of the webpage;

where the plug-in only encodes the image of that region into barcode/s.

12. The method of claim 4, where the plug-in only encodes material in the source of the webpage that is delimited by a predetermined pair of tags.

13. The method of claim 1, where if several barcodes are to be shown at the same location, Jane presses a hardware or software button on the second computer, to scroll through the display of these barcodes.

14. The method of claim 4, where the plug-in checks the webpage for malware scripts by displaying the webpage in a virtual environment;

where if the webpage fails the tests, it is not encoded.

15. The method of claim 4, where the plug-in rewrites the webpage for optimal display on a cellphone;

including restricting the maximum or minimum sizes of text;

including restricting the types of fonts.

16. The method of claim 1, where the second computer runs a browser that goes to a website ('"'"'Encoder'"'"');

where Jane types a URL in a page on the Encoder website;

where Jane tells the Encoder her browser, operating system and hardware;

where the Encoder gets the page, and runs it in a virtual machine corresponding to her browser, operating system and hardware.

17. The method of claim 16, where the virtual browser is modified to detect malware in a displayed page;

where the virtual operating system runs a program that scrutinises the virtual browser for error conditions;

where the virtual hardware runs a program that scrutinises the virtual operating system for errors;

where the Encoder'"'"'s operating system runs a program that scrutinises the virtual hardware program for errors.

18. The method of claim 1, where the data encoded into barcode/s are (keys to a symmetric cryptosystem) or (a one time pad).

19. A method of a user with a cellphone containing a camera, near an Automated Teller Machine, where the ATM makes a random sequence and an id for itself and encodes both into a displayed barcode;

where the user'"'"'s phone decodes this and sends a wireless message with it to the ATM'"'"'s bank;

where the bank compares the data with the original;

where, if the data agrees, the bank uses the message sender field to find the user'"'"'s account;

where the ATM uses this to prompt for her password.

20. A method of a user with a cellphone at an ATM, where she presses a button at the ATM keypad, makes a barcode on her phone screen of her username or account number, shows this to the ATM camera;

where image analysis by the ATM decodes the barcode to find her username or account number.