Method and apparatus for facilitating an anonymous information system and anonymous service transactions
First Claim
1. An information system for storing personal data of a data owner in data servers on a global computer network, comprising;
- a. a receiving function that receives,(i) an access key,(ii) personal data of identifying data type that if used by itself is sufficient to identify the data owner, and(iii) personal data of non-identifying data type that by itself is insufficient to identify the data owner;
b. a defacing function that parses the identifying data into shreds that preserve the character of the identifying data, for each of these shreds maintains a random order list of shreds, aliases each shred with another shred from the corresponding list, and saves defaced identifying data made of these aliased shreds, and the non-identifying data in the data servers using the access key as a reference.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An information system (12) for storing personal information of a customer (20) is provided herein. The customer (20) preferably communicates with the information system (12) using the Internet. Further, the customer (20) preferably uses an anonymous identifier (320) to gain access to the information system (12). The customer (20) can create the anonymous identifier (320) to assure anonymity and to facilitate anonymous and secure transactions over the Internet. Some or all of the personal information of the customer (20) is preferably electronically shredded and defaced before storage in the information system (12). This feature allows the customer (20) to maintain private data (25) in the information system (12) anonymously and shields the private data (25) from even the operators of the information system (12). In addition to maintaining the private data (25), the information system (12) allows the customer (20) to anonymously receive an estimate on a service and/or receive a service (806) from the service merchant (22) without the merchant (22) knowing the identity of the customer (20). Examples of services (806) that may be received from service merchants (22) include an insurance quote for a vehicle, an insurance quote for a structure, a life insurance quote, a health insurance quote, an insurance quote on some other item, a one time use of special software such as tax computation software, a quote on a loan, interest rates for a loan application, and clothing that is custom tailored.
273 Citations
38 Claims
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1. An information system for storing personal data of a data owner in data servers on a global computer network, comprising;
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a. a receiving function that receives, (i) an access key, (ii) personal data of identifying data type that if used by itself is sufficient to identify the data owner, and (iii) personal data of non-identifying data type that by itself is insufficient to identify the data owner; b. a defacing function that parses the identifying data into shreds that preserve the character of the identifying data, for each of these shreds maintains a random order list of shreds, aliases each shred with another shred from the corresponding list, and saves defaced identifying data made of these aliased shreds, and the non-identifying data in the data servers using the access key as a reference. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. A system for protecting identity data in data servers while being stored there comprising:
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a. a receiving function that receives, an access key and the identity data; b. a defacing function that parses the identifying data into shreds that preserve the character of the identifying data, for each of these shreds maintains a random order list of shreds, aliases each shred with another shred from the corresponding list; c. a mapping function that maps the access key to a sequence number, saves the mapping in a first data server and saves the defaced identity data in a second data server anchored by the sequence number. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17)
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18. A method of storing personal data of a data owner in data servers on a global computer network, comprising the steps of:
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a. entering an access key; b. entering personal data of identifying data type that is sufficient to identify the data owner; c. entering personal data of non-identifying data type that by itself is insufficient to identify the data owner; d. defacing the identifying data by parsing into shreds that preserve the character of the identifying data, for each of these shreds maintaining a random order list of shreds, aliasing each shred with another shred from the corresponding list, and saving the defaced identifying data made of these aliased shreds and the non-identifying data in the data servers using the access key as a reference. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31)
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32. A method of protecting identity data in data servers while being stored there comprising the steps of:
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a. a data owner entering an access key and entering identity data from a group that includes (i) name, (ii) address, (iii) telephone number, (iv) e-mail address, (v) bankcard data, (vi) driver license data, (vii) social security number, and sending to the data servers; and b. defacing the identity data by parsing into shreds that preserve the character of the identity data, for each of these shreds maintaining a random order list of shreds, aliasing each shred with another shred from the corresponding list, and saving the defaced identity data made of these aliased shreds in the data servers using the access key as a reference.
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33. The claim as in 32, wherein the step of defacing identity data comprising the steps of:
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a. shredding identity data into name-character and non-name character data shreds; b. maintaining a first group lists of random order name-character data shreds and a second group lists of random order of alphabets and numerals; c. identifying the position of each name shred data in the first group of lists, creating modified list positions by applying random offsets, finding a name shred from the lists corresponding to the modified list positions and saving the defaced name shreds and the random offsets in the data servers; d. identifying the position of each digit of the non-name data in the second group of lists, creating modified list positions by applying random offsets, finding a digit from the lists corresponding to the modified list positions and saving the defaced digits and the random offsets in the data servers.
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34. The claim as in 33, wherein the step of applying random offsets comprising the steps of:
- applying a plurality of random offsets and for each of the plurality of offsets using an operator from a group that includes addition and subtraction.
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35. A method of saving and securing personal data related to a person in a private information bank system comprising the steps of:
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a. requiring an initial entry of a structured access key into a computer system of the private information bank, the system assigning a sequence number to the access key and saving the access key and the sequence number in a storage of the computer system; b. entering personal data divided as identity data and non-identity data into the computer system, the system shredding the identity data into name-type shreds and non-name-type shreds, wherein for each shred type, a plurality of random order list of shreds of that type being maintained in the computer system, the system defacing each shred into an equivalent shred using the random order shred lists, and saving the defaced shreds as an equivalent identity data and the non-identity data anchored by the sequence number in the storage. - View Dependent Claims (36, 37, 38)
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Specification