Architecture and method for operational privacy in business services

• US 7,167,842 B1
• Filed: 06/27/2000
• Issued: 01/23/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 06/27/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Teradata US, Inc. (Teradata Corporation)
• Original Assignee: NCR Corporation
• Inventors: Boland, Vernon Keith, Josephson, Robert N. II
• Primary Examiner(s): Abdi; Kambiz
• Application Number:
  US09/604,825
• Time in Patent Office: 2,401 Days
• Field of Search: 705 63- 64, 705/76, 705/44, 705/67, 707/9, 707/10, 707/1
• US Class Current: 705/64
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/382 insuring higher security of transaction
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3821 Electronic credentials
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/40 Authorisation, e.g. identification of payer or payee, verification of customer or shop credentials; Review and approval of payers, e.g. check credit lines or negative lists
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/06 Energy or water supply
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99939 Privileged access

Abstract

Consent-based application programming interfaces (APIs) are used to provide privacy access controls to operational systems for business services accomplished particularly in an electronic and/or networked environment. An API implementation device or host provides a link between a channel application, configured to provide an interface with a customer, and privacy data as used by operational applications and obtained from databases such as data warehouses. The privacy APIs provide per-customer choice/consent to obtaining and/or retrieval of privacy information/data and per-customer access thereto. In one form, the privacy APIs are used in business initiated self service applications wherein an activity or event triggers business to customer initiation.

Claims

1. In an electronic network, an architecture for providing privacy of consumer data during a business transaction comprising:

a host computer in communication with the network;

a plurality of APIs resident on said host computer, wherein one of said APIs interfaces with a channel application operating on a presentation device that is in communication with the network to request access to various consumer privacy data during the business transaction, another one of said APIs interfaces with the channel application operating on the presentation device to request consumer consent to various privacy data categories during the business transaction, and a further one of said APIs interfaces with an operational application operating on the network to obtain the consumer privacy data consistent with the access to the various consumer privacy data and the consent to various privacy data categories during the business transaction;

a consumer privacy access and consent log in communication with the network and for retaining consumer consents to various privacy data categories; and

a data warehouse in communication with the network and for retaining consumer privacy data obtained during the business transaction and previously obtained consumer privacy data, said data warehouse interfacing with an analytical application operating on the network so that the analytical application may view consumer privacy categories retained by said data warehouse.

2. The architecture of claim 1, further comprising:

a second consumer privacy access and consent log in communication with said data warehouse and for retaining access and consents to various privacy data categories from said data warehouse.

3. An architecture for obtaining consumer privacy data via a network comprising:

a host device in communication with the network and containing a first API and a second API, wherein said first API which interfaces with a channel application functioning on a presentation device in communication with the network to request privacy data parameters from a consumer, and said a second API which interfaces with the channel application operating on the presentation device to request consumer consent to various privacy data categories; and

a third API which interfaces with an operational application functioning on the network to retrieve privacy data relating to the consumer according to said privacy data parameters and the consent to various privacy data categories;

a privacy access and change log in communication with said host device and for retaining said consumer privacy data parameters; and

a data warehouse in communication with the network and operable to;

retain consumer privacy data; and

provide view-level access to an analytical application, wherein the analytical application interfaces with said data warehouse to analyze the data of a plurality of consumers via said view level access provided by said data warehouse.

4. The architecture of claim 3, wherein said analytical application is operable to analyze the data of a plurality of consumers to thereby obtain at least one of propensity information and market segmentation information.

5. The architecture of claim 3, wherein said analytical application is operable to choose a view of the data of a plurality of consumers such that the view matches a type of analysis that said analytical application will perform on the data of a plurality of consumers.

6. The architecture of claim 3, wherein said data warehouse is operable to determine that consumer privacy data retained by said data warehouse should be one of erased and anonymized so that an extract, transform and load adapter may synchronize consumer privacy data changes with a data store.

7. A system for obtaining consumer privacy data from a consumer in accordance with consumer-defined consumer privacy data parameters via a network comprising:

a first API for communicating with a channel application to request a privacy data parameter from a consumer,

a second API for communicating with a channel application for receiving consumer privacy data from the consumer in accordance with said privacy data parameters communicated through said first API;

a third API interfacing with an operational application functioning on the network to retrieve privacy data relating to the consumer according to said privacy data parameters;

a data warehouse for storing said consumer privacy data; and

a privacy access and change log for storing said consumer privacy data parameters so that access to said stored consumer privacy data is performed in accordance with said privacy data parameters; and

an analytical application coupled to the data warehouse through an interface so that the data warehouse provides the analytical application view-level access to consumer privacy data categories in accordance with the consumer privacy data parameters.

8. The system of claim 7, said analytical application analyzes the data of a plurality of consumers via said view-level access provided by said data warehouse.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein said analytical application analyzes the data of a plurality of consumers to generate one of propensity information and market segmentation information.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein said analytical application identifies a view of the data of a plurality of consumers that matches a type of analysis that said analytical application will perform on the data of a plurality of consumers.