ANONYMOUS CUSTOMER REFERENCE SERVICES ENABLER

• US 20130273886A1
• Filed: 04/12/2012
• Published: 10/17/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 04/12/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Mohajeri, Shahram
• Granted Patent: US 8,718,607 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/411
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0876 based on the identity of the terminal or configuration, e.g. MAC address, hardware or software configuration or device fingerprint
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/02 Protecting privacy or anonymity, e.g. protecting personally identifiable information [PII]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/06 Authentication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/75 Temporary identity
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/11 Allocation or use of connection identifiers
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/14 Direct-mode setup

Abstract

A system and methodology that facilitates generation and management of variable subscriber identifiers (V-SubIds) for protecting subscriber privacy is disclosed herein. In one aspect, an Anonymous Customer Reference Services (ACRS) component generates a V-SubId, which is a short-lived subscriber identifier that is inserted in a request received from a user equipment during request enrichment. Moreover, a different V-SubId can be inserted in subsequent request from the user equipment and thus, cross-site behavior tracking can be mitigated. In one aspect, the V-SubId can be exchanged for a subscriber identifier (SubId) associated with the user equipment, upon query by trusted systems/applications. Further, the V-SubId can be exchanged for a site-specific Anonymous Customer Reference (ACR) upon query by untrusted systems/applications, if user authorization is received. Moreover, the life cycle of the ACR is managed by the ACRS component, based on subscriber input.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

at least one memory that stores computer-executable instructions;

at least one processor, communicatively coupled to the at least one memory, that facilitates execution of the computer-executable instructions to at least;

perform an authentication of a user equipment to allow the user equipment to connect with a telecommunications network, the authentication employing a static identifier associated with the user equipment;

receive in the telecommunications network, from the user equipment, a request for an operation to be performed by an untrusted entity accessible via the telecommunications network;

based on the authentication, assign a variable subscriber identifier to the static identifier associated with the user equipment;

insert the variable subscriber identifier into the request; and

facilitate transmission of the request including the inserted variable subscriber identifier to the untrusted entity.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor further facilitates the execution of the computer-executable instructions to insert the variable subscriber identifier in a header of the request.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein a value of the variable subscriber identifier is modified in response to an expiration criterion being met.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor further facilitates the execution of the computer-executable instructions to receive, from a trusted entity, a query that includes the variable subscriber identifier.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the at least one processor further facilitates the execution of the computer-executable instructions to transmit, to the trusted entity, the static identifier that corresponds to the variable subscriber identifier, in response to a verification that the trusted entity is authorized to access the static identifier.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor further facilitates the execution of the computer-executable instructions to receive, from the untrusted entity, a query that includes the variable subscriber identifier.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the at least one processor further facilitates the execution of the computer-executable instructions to generate an anonymous customer reference, that corresponds to the variable subscriber identifier and is associated with the untrusted entity, in response to receipt of user authorization, wherein the anonymous customer reference does not change for a specific time period.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the at least one processor further facilitates the execution of the computer-executable instructions to facilitate transmission of the anonymous customer reference to the untrusted entity.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the operation includes a first operation and the at least one processor further facilitates the execution of the computer-executable instructions to:

receive, from the user equipment, a subsequent request for a second operation to be performed by the untrusted entity;

insert the anonymous customer reference within the subsequent request; and

facilitate transmission of the request including the anonymous customer reference to the untrusted entity.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the query is a first query and the at least one processor further facilitates the execution of the computer-executable instructions to:

receive, from a trusted entity, a second query that includes the anonymous customer reference, and

transmit, to the trusted entity, the static identifier that corresponds to the anonymous customer reference, in response to a verification that the trusted entity is authorized to access the static identifier.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the authentication employs a static identifier that is associated with a subscriber identity module of the user equipment.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor executes at least in part the computer-executable instructions.

13. A method, comprising:

receiving, by a system comprising at least one processor, a query for a variable subscriber identifier that is to be inserted into a request from a user equipment, the request being directed to an untrusted entity;

identifying, by the system, a static identifier associated with the user equipment based in part on an authorization of the user equipment with a telecommunications network;

automatically generating, by the system, the variable subscriber identifier; and

assigning, by the system, the variable subscriber identifier to the static identifier.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

automatically generating, by the system, an expiration criterion associated with the variable subscriber identifier; and

automatically generating, by the system, a new variable subscriber identifier, in response to the expiration criterion being met.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

inserting, by the system, the variable subscriber identifier in the request; and

facilitating, by the system, transmission of the request to the untrusted entity, subsequent to the inserting.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the query is a first query and the method further comprises:

receiving, by the system, a second query from the untrusted entity that includes the variable subscriber identifier;

generating, by the system, in response to receiving a user authorization, an anonymous customer reference that is to be inserted in a subsequent request from the user equipment to the untrusted entity; and

facilitating, by the system, transmission of the anonymous customer reference to the untrusted entity.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the user authorization is a first user authorization and the method further comprises:

deleting the anonymous customer reference based on receiving a second user authorization.

18. The method of claim 13, wherein the identifying includes identifying the static identifier based in part on the authorization that utilizes a subscriber identity module of the user equipment to grant the user equipment access to the telecommunications network.

19. The method of claim 13, wherein the query is a first query and the method further comprises:

receiving, by the system, a second query that includes the variable subscriber identifier, from a trusted entity; and

facilitating, by the system, transmission of the static identifier to the trusted entity, in response to determining that the trusted entity is authorized to access the static identifier.

20. A computer-readable storage medium comprising computer-executable instructions that, in response to execution, cause a system, including at least one processor, to perform operations comprising:

determining that a request received at a telecommunications network from a user equipment is directed to an untrusted entity accessible via the telecommunications network based on analyzing the request, the request being for an operation to be performed by the untrusted entity;

identifying a static identifier associated with the user equipment based in part on an authorization of the user equipment with the telecommunications network;

obtaining a variable subscriber identifier assigned to the static identifier associated with the user equipment;

inserting the variable subscriber identifier into the request; and

directing the request with the variable subscriber identifier thus inserted to the untrusted entity.

21. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 20, wherein the variable subscriber identifier is modified in response to an expiration criterion being met.

22. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 20, wherein the static identifier is associated with a subscriber identity module of the user equipment.

23. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 20, wherein the request is a first request and the operations further comprise:

detecting that a second request received at the telecommunications network from the user equipment is directed to a trusted entity accessible via the telecommunications network based on analyzing the second request, the second request being for an operation to be performed by the trusted entity;

inserting the static identifier into the second request in response to the detecting; and

directing the second request including the inserted static identifier to the trusted entity.

24. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 20, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving an anonymous customer reference assigned to the static identifier associated with the user equipment for a predefined time period, the anonymous customer reference is specific to the untrusted entity and is generated based on a user authorization.

25. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 24, wherein the operations further comprise:

during the predefined time period, inserting the anonymous customer reference into a subsequent request that is directed to the untrusted entity, the subsequent request being for another operation to be performed by the untrusted entity; and

directing the subsequent request including the inserted anonymous customer reference to the untrusted entity.