Post-anonymous fuzzy comparisons without the use of pre-anonymization variants

• US 8,204,831 B2
• Filed: 11/13/2006
• Issued: 06/19/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 11/13/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Jonas, Jeffrey J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Elisca, Pierre E
• Application Number:
  US11/559,209
• Publication Number:
  US 20080114991A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,045 Days
• Field of Search: 705/50, 705/51, 705/57, 705/67, 705/75
• US Class Current: 705/50
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6245 Protecting personal data, e.g. for financial or medical purposes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3674 involving authentication

Abstract

A method, apparatus, and article of manufacture for processing data. The method, apparatus and article of manufacture preferably comprise the steps of: (a) receiving a record having a plurality of identifiers into a computer system, the record corresponding to an entity; (b) encrypting one or more of the identifiers in the record to form an encrypted record; (c) applying one or more encrypted variants to the encrypted record based on the encrypted identifiers and pre-computed encrypted synonyms; and (d) comparing the encrypted record to previously stored data using the encrypted identifiers and the encrypted variants in order to the match or associate the encrypted record with the previously stored data.

Claims

1. A method for processing data, comprising:

(a) receiving a record having a plurality of identifiers into a computer system, the record corresponding to an entity;

(b) encrypting one or more of the identifiers in the record to form an encrypted record;

(c) applying one or more encrypted variants to the encrypted record using the encrypted identifiers to access pre-computed encrypted synonyms from an encrypted synonym table; and

(d) comparing the encrypted record to previously stored data using the encrypted identifiers and the encrypted variants in order to the match or associate the encrypted record with the previously stored data, wherein the record is matched with the previously stored data using fuzzy matching through the use of the encrypted identifiers and encrypted variants, without using pre-anonymization variants.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of converting the record into a standardized message format.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of enhancing the record by formatting the identifiers in accordance with a user-defined standard.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of comparing the encrypted record to the previously stored data further comprises the step of assigning a persistent key to the encrypted record.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the persistent key reflects an existing entity when the encrypted record matches the previously stored data.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the persistent key reflects a new entity when the encrypted record does not match the previously stored data.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the encrypted variants comprise name roots, date-of-birth transpositions, sound-alike equivalencies, language transliterations, grid coordinates, or other synonyms.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the encrypted synonym table is created by processing a synonym table using a cryptographic algorithm.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the synonym table includes the variants.

10. An apparatus for processing data, comprising:

a computer system;

logic, performed by the computer system, for

(a) receiving a record having a plurality of identifiers into a computer system, the record corresponding to an entity;

(b) encrypting one or more of the identifiers in the record to form an encrypted record;

(c) applying one or more encrypted variants to the encrypted record using the encrypted identifiers to access pre-computed encrypted synonyms from an encrypted synonym table; and

(d) comparing the encrypted record to previously stored data using the encrypted identifiers and the encrypted variants in order to the match or associate the encrypted record with the previously stored data, wherein the record is matched with the previously stored data using fuzzy matching through the use of the encrypted identifiers and encrypted variants, without using pre-anonymization variants.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, further comprising logic for converting the record into a standardized message format.

12. The apparatus of claim 10, further comprising logic for enhancing the record by formatting the identifiers in accordance with a user-defined standard.

13. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the logic for comparing the encrypted record to the previously stored data further comprises the logic for assigning a persistent key to the encrypted record.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the persistent key reflects an existing entity when the encrypted record matches the previously stored data.

15. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the persistent key reflects a new entity when the encrypted record does not match the previously stored data.

16. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the encrypted variants comprise name roots, date-of-birth transpositions, sound-alike equivalencies, language transliterations, or other synonyms.

17. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the encrypted synonym table is created by processing a synonym table using a cryptographic algorithm.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the synonym table includes the variants.

19. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory useable medium including computer readable code, wherein the computer read code when executed by a computer causes the computer to perform a method for processing data, comprising:

(a) receiving a record having a plurality of identifiers into a computer system, the record corresponding to an entity;

(b) encrypting one or more of the identifiers in the record to form an encrypted record;

(c) applying one or more encrypted variants to the encrypted record using the encrypted identifiers to access pre-computed encrypted synonyms from an encrypted synonym table; and

(d) comparing the encrypted record to previously stored data using the encrypted identifiers and the encrypted variants in order to the match or associate the encrypted record with the previously stored data, wherein the record is matched with the previously stored data using fuzzy matching through the use of the encrypted identifiers and encrypted variants, without using pre-anonymization variants.

20. The article of claim 19, further comprising the step of converting the record into a standardized message format.

21. The article of claim 19, further comprising the step of enhancing the record by formatting the identifiers in accordance with a user-defined standard.

22. The article of claim 19, wherein the step of comparing the encrypted record to the previously stored data further comprises the step of assigning a persistent key to the encrypted record.

23. The article of claim 22, wherein the persistent key reflects an existing entity when the encrypted record matches the previously stored data.

24. The article of claim 22, wherein the persistent key reflects a new entity when the encrypted record does not match the previously stored data.

25. The article of claim 19, wherein the encrypted variants comprise name roots, date-of-birth transpositions, sound-alike equivalencies, language transliterations, or other synonyms.

26. The article of claim 19, wherein the encrypted synonym table is created by processing a synonym table using a cryptographic algorithm.

27. The article of claim 26, wherein the synonym table includes the variants.