Identifying and changing personal information

• US 8,060,508 B2
• Filed: 03/01/2011
• Issued: 11/15/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 01/31/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Reputation.com, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Reputation.com, Inc.
• Inventors: Thompson, David, Aubry, James, Fertik, Michael, Gabriel, Raefer, Kelley, Brian
• Primary Examiner(s): Ehichioya; Fred I
• Assistant Examiner(s): OBISESAN, AUGUSTINE KUNLE
• Application Number:
  US13/038,123
• Publication Number:
  US 20110153551A1
• Time in Patent Office: 259 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 707/731
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0263 based upon Internet or website rating

Abstract

Systems, apparatuses, and methods for analyzing information about a user are presented which include obtaining at least one search result based on at least one search terms describing the user; presenting the at least one search result to the user; receiving an indication from the user of the desirability of a search result; and performing an action based on the desirability of the search result. Systems, apparatuses, and methods are also presented for determining a reputation score representing the reputation of a user which include collecting search results from data source, determining an effect on the reputation of the user of the search results from the data source, and calculating a reputation score for the user based on the determined effect on the reputation of the user from the search results from the data source.

Claims

1. A method for determining a reputation score representing a reputation of a user comprising:

collecting, at a computer, at least one search result from a data source via a search engine based on a search term identifying the user;

identifying a contextual token describing the user within a string of words surrounding a relevancy-indicating token in the at least one search result;

determining an effect of the at least one search result on the reputation of the user based on whether the identified contextual token is a contextually-positive token improving the reputation of the user or a contextually-negative token adversely affecting the reputation of the user;

associating the identified contextual token with a numerical weight based on the determined effect; and

calculating the reputation score representing the reputation of the user based on the associated numerical weight.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

presenting the reputation score to a third party at the user'"'"'s request in order to vouch that the user is as reputable as the score indicates.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

presenting the reputation score to a third party at the third party'"'"'s request in order to vouch that the user is as reputable as the score indicates.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the data source is at least one of a credit agency database, a criminal database, an insurance database, a social networking database, or a news database.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

categorizing the at least one search result as positive or negative; and

determining the effect of the at least one search result on the reputation of the user based on the positive or negative categorization of the at least one search result.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

associating the at least one search result along a positive to negative scale; and

determining the effect of the at least one search result on the reputation of the user based on the positive to negative association of the at least one the search result.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

calculating at least one reputation sub-score for the user based on the effect on reputation of the user of the at least one search result from the data source.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a numerical value representing a relevancy of the at least one search result.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

associating a numerical weight with the numerical value for the relevancy of the at least one search result; and

calculating the reputation score using the numerical value and the numerical weight of the relevancy of the search result.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a numerical value representing a mood of the at least one search result.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

associating a numerical weight to the numerical value representing the mood of the at least one search result; and

calculating the reputation score using the numerical value and the numerical weight of the mood of the search result.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a numerical value representing a significance of the data source.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

associating a numerical weight to the numerical value representing the significance of the data source; and

calculating the reputation score using the numerical value and the numerical weight of the significance of the data source.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the significance of the data source is based on an evaluation of the data source.

15. An apparatus for determining the reputation of a user comprising:

at least one computing processor configured to;

obtain at least one search result from a data source via a search engine based on at least one search term identifying the user;

identify a contextual token describing the user within a string of words surrounding a relevancy-indicating token in the at least one search result;

determine the effect of the at least one search result on reputation of the user based on whether the identified contextual token is a contextually-positive token or a contextually-negative token;

associate the identified contextual token with a numerical weight based on the determined effect; and

calculate a reputation score for the user based on the associated numerical weight.

16. A computer readable medium storing instructions that, when executed, cause a computer to perform a method for determining a reputation score representing a reputation of a user, the method comprising:

obtaining at least one search result from a data source via a search engine based on at least one search term identifying the user;

identifying a contextual token describing the user within a string of words surrounding a relevancy-indicating token in the at least one search result;

determining an effect of the at least one search result on a reputation of the user based on whether the identified contextual token is a contextually-positive token or a contextually-negative token;

associating the identified contextual token with a numerical weight based on the determined effect; and

calculating a reputation score for the user based on the associated numerical weight.