Document anonymity setting device, method and computer readable recording medium recording anonymity setting program

• US 7,184,947 B2
• Filed: 08/06/2001
• Issued: 02/27/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 01/05/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Original Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Inventors: Ochitani, Ryo, Matsuoka, Hidesato
• Primary Examiner(s): SHORTLEDGE, THOMAS E
• Application Number:
  US09/921,924
• Publication Number:
  US 20020091516A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,031 Days
• Field of Search: 704/4, 704/239, 704/236, 704/245, 704/243, 704/9, 704/8, 704/257, 706/45, 706/47, 713/168
• US Class Current: 704/8
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6245 Protecting personal data, e.g. for financial or medical purposes
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/1815 Semantic context, e.g. disambiguation of the recognition hypotheses based on word meaning
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/183 using context dependencies, e.g. language models

Abstract

A document anonymity setting device comprises a document input means inputting a document, a specificity calculating means extracting an expression specifying a person from the input document and for calculating a specificity to evaluate a degree of specificity at which the expression specifying a person, and an anonymity setting processing means rewriting with anonymity setting a expression in the input document having a specificity which is greater than a predetermined threshold. The specificity calculating unit extracts a person name and a modification expression from the input document and calculates a specificity to evaluate a degree of specificity at which the person name and modification expression thus extracted can specify a person. The anonymity setting processing unit rewrites a person name and a modification expression which have a specificity greater than a predetermined threshold through rewriting to meaningless expression, rewriting to low specificity setting, and rewriting to encrypted expression.

Claims

1. An anonymity setting device comprising:

a specificity calculating unit extracting an expression specifying a person from an input document and calculating a specificity to evaluate a degree of intensity at which the expression can specify the person; and

an anonymity setting processing unit changing a name of the person in the input document having a specificity which is greater than a predetermined threshold;

wherein said specificity calculating unit extracts surrounding expressions of the person'"'"'s name from said input document, and calculates, for each surrounding expression, a degree of specificity for evaluating a degree of specificity at which the person can be specified with the extracted individual surrounding expressions; and

said anonymity setting processing unit sets, when there is a surrounding expression of a degree of specificity higher than a predetermined threshold, anonymity for such surrounding expression and the person'"'"'s name; and

wherein the specificity calculating unit further includes;

a syntax analyzing means creating a syntax tree indicative of a modification relationship between clauses based on a syntax analyzing rule from a result of a part-of-speech analysis;

a person specifying tree extracting means extracting a tree structure specifying the person as a person modification expression based on a person specifying tree extracting rule for the tree structure obtained by the parsing unit; and

a tree structure specificity calculating means calculating a specificity of the person specifying tree thus extracted based on statistical information.

2. An anonymity setting device comprising:

a specificity calculating unit extracting an expression specifying a person from an input document and calculating a specificity to evaluate a degree of intensity at which the expression can specify the person; and

an anonymity setting processing unit changing a name of the person in the input document having a specificity which is greater than a predetermined threshold;

wherein said specificity calculating unit extracts surrounding expressions of the person'"'"'s name from said input document, and calculates, for each surrounding expression, a degree of specificity for evaluating a degree of specificity at which the person can be specified with the extracted individual surrounding expressions; and

said anonymity setting processing unit sets, when there is a surrounding expression of a degree of specificity higher than a predetermined threshold, anonymity for such surrounding expression and the person'"'"'s name; and

wherein the anonymity setting processing unit replaces an expression specifying the person extracted from the input document to a low specificity expression having a specificity which is equal to or smaller than a threshold to be used for rewriting with the anonymity expression.

3. A document anonymity setting method comprising:

a specificity calculating step of extracting an expression specifying a person from an input document and calculating a specificity to evaluate a degree of specificity at which the expression specifies a name of the person; and

an anonymity setting processing step of rewriting the name of the person with an anonymity expression in said input document which has a specificity higher than a predetermined threshold;

wherein said specificity calculating step extracts surrounding expressions of the person'"'"'s name from said input document, and calculates, for each surrounding expression, a degree of specificity for evaluating a degree of intensity at which the person can be specified with the extracted individual surrounding expressions; and

said anonymity setting processing step sets, when there is a surrounding expressions of a degree of specificity higher then a predetermined threshold, anonymity for said surrounding expression and the person'"'"'s name; and

wherein the specificity calculating step further includes;

a syntax analyzing step of creating a syntax tree indicative of a modification relationship between clauses based on a syntax analyzing rule from the result of the part-of-speech analysis;

a tree structure specifying a person extracting step of extracting a tree structure specifying the person as a person modification expression based on a person specifying tree extracting rule for the syntax tree obtained at the syntax analyzing step; and

a tree structure specificity calculating step of calculating a specificity of the tree structure specifying the person thus extracted based on statistical information.

4. A document anonymity setting method comprising:

a specificity calculating step of extracting an expression specifying a person from an input document and calculating a specificity to evaluate a degree of specificity at which the expression specifies a name of the person; and

an anonymity setting processing step of rewriting the name of the person with an anonymity expression in said input document which has a specificity higher than a predetermined threshold;

wherein said specificity calculating step extracts surrounding expressions of the person'"'"'s name from said input document, and calculates, for each surrounding expression, a degree of specificity for evaluating a degree of intensity at which the person can be specified with the extracted individual surrounding expressions; and

said anonymity setting processing step sets, when there is a surrounding expressions of a degree of specificity higher then a predetermined threshold, anonymity for said surrounding expression and the person'"'"'s name; and

wherein the specificity calculating step includes;

a sentence extracting step of extracting a sentence from the input document;

a part-of-speech analyzing step of discriminating the extracted sentence for each part of speech;

a person'"'"'s name extracting step of extracting the person'"'"'s name based on a name extracting rule from a result of the part-of-speech analysis; and

a person'"'"'s name specificity calculating step of calculating a specificity of the person'"'"'s name thus extracted based on statistical information; and

wherein the specificity calculating step takes a weight average of a specificity obtained by a calculation of an expression which specifies the person extracted from the input document with a specificity registered in a reference specificity database registering specificity data having a set of an expression specifying the person created based on an existing document, a type of the person'"'"'s name or a modification expression and a specificity, and normalizes the weight average.

5. A document anonymity setting method comprising:

a specificity calculating step of extracting an expression specifying a person from an input document and calculating a specificity to evaluate a degree of specificity at which the expression specifies a name of the person; and

an anonymity setting processing step of rewriting the name of the person with an anonymity expression in said input document which has a specificity higher than a predetermined threshold;

wherein said specificity calculating step extracts surrounding expressions of the person'"'"'s name from said input document, and calculates, for each surrounding expression, a degree of specificity for evaluating a degree of intensity at which the person can be specified with the extracted individual surrounding expressions; and

said anonymity setting processing step sets, when there is a surrounding expressions of a degree of specificity higher then a predetermined threshold, anonymity for said surrounding expression and the person'"'"'s name; and

further comprising an anonymity setting indicating step of setting and changing a threshold to be used at the anonymity setting processing step.

6. A document anonymity setting method comprising:

a specificity calculating step of extracting an expression specifying a person from an input document and calculating a specificity to evaluate a degree of specificity at which the expression specifies a name of the person; and

an anonymity setting processing step of rewriting the name of the person with an anonymity expression in said input document which has a specificity higher than a predetermined threshold;

wherein said specificity calculating step extracts surrounding expressions of the person'"'"'s name from said input document, and calculates, for each surrounding expression, a degree of specificity for evaluating a degree of intensity at which the person can be specified with the extracted individual surrounding expressions; and

said anonymity setting processing step sets, when there is a surrounding expressions of a degree of specificity higher then a predetermined threshold, anonymity for said surrounding expression and the person'"'"'s name; and

wherein the anonymity setting method retains, in a threshold database, a threshold used in an anonymity setting processing for each processing document and sets a last threshold as a default during the anonymity setting processing of a new input document.

7. A document anonymity setting method comprising:

a specificity calculating step of extracting an expression specifying a person from an input document and calculating a specificity to evaluate a degree of specificity at which the expression specifies a name of the person; and

an anonymity setting processing step of rewriting the name of the person with an anonymity expression in said input document which has a specificity higher than a predetermined threshold;

wherein said specificity calculating step extracts surrounding expressions of the person'"'"'s name from said input document, and calculates, for each surrounding expression, a degree of specificity for evaluating a degree of intensity at which the person can be specified with the extracted individual surrounding expressions; and

said anonymity setting processing step sets, when there is a surrounding expressions of a degree of specificity higher then a predetermined threshold, anonymity for said surrounding expression and the person'"'"'s name; and

wherein the anonymity setting processing step replaces the expression specifying the person extracted from an input document with a low specificity expression having a specificity equal to or lower than a threshold which is to be used for rewriting of the expressions specifying a person.