Selective use of anonymous proxies

• US 8,301,787 B2
• Filed: 03/22/2007
• Issued: 10/30/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/22/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Li, Richard Ding
• Primary Examiner(s): Hussain, Imad
• Application Number:
  US11/728,103
• Publication Number:
  US 20080235385A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,049 Days
• Field of Search: 709/217, 709/719, 709/229, 709/238, 709/245
• US Class Current: 709/229
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0218 Distributed architectures, e.g. distributed firewalls
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0421 Anonymous communication, i.e. the party's identifiers are hidden from the other party or parties, e.g. using an anonymizer
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/63 Routing a service request depending on the request content or context

Abstract

A method and apparatus for selectively using an anonymous proxy. A user request for content is received. A determination is made as to whether the user request satisfies context criteria. When the user request satisfies the context criteria, the user request is forwarded to an anonymous proxy. When the user request does not satisfy the context criteria, the request is sent directly to a content provider.

Claims

1. A method implemented by a computer system programmed to perform the following, comprising:

receiving, by a client computer system executing a browser application, a user request for content provided by a server, the user request comprising user identifying information;

using context criteria to determine, by the browser application, whether to send the user request to a remote anonymous proxy, wherein the context criteria comprises one or more privacy laws determined based on a physical location of the server; and

forwarding the user request to the remote anonymous proxy if the user request satisfies the context criteria, wherein the remote anonymous proxy is configured to privatize the user request by altering at least one type of user identifying information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the context criteria are satisfied if the content provider has specific characteristics.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein one of the specific characteristics includes a website type.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the user request is forwarded to the anonymous proxy when the website type is a search site.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein one of the specific characteristics includes a degree of trustworthiness.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the user request is forwarded to the anonymous proxy when a provider of the content does not have a high degree of trustworthiness.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the context criteria are satisfied if the user request was made in association with a search function.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the user request is forwarded to the anonymous proxy automatically without user input.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the context criteria are satisfied if the user request was made by a user having a specific user profile or specific user preferences.

10. A non-transitory machine-accessible storage medium including data that, when accessed by a machine, cause the machine to perform a method comprising:

receiving, by a client computer system executing a browser application, a user request for content provided by a server, the user request comprising user identifying information;

using context criteria to determine, by the browser application, whether to send the user request to a remote anonymous proxy, wherein the context criteria comprises one or more privacy laws determined based on a physical location of the server; and

forwarding the user request to the remote anonymous proxy if the user request satisfies the context criteria, wherein the remote anonymous proxy is configured to privatize the user request by altering at least one type of user identifying information.

11. The non-transitory machine-accessible storage medium of claim 10, wherein the context criteria are satisfied if the content provider has specific characteristics.

12. The non-transitory machine-accessible storage medium of claim 11, wherein one of the specific characteristics includes a website type.

13. The non-transitory machine-accessible storage medium of claim 12, wherein the user request is forwarded to the anonymous proxy when the website type is a search site.

14. The non-transitory machine-accessible storage medium of claim 11, wherein one of the specific characteristics includes a degree of trustworthiness.

15. The non-transitory machine-accessible storage medium of claim 14, wherein the user request is forwarded to the anonymous proxy when a provider of the content does not have a high degree of trustworthiness.

16. The non-transitory machine-accessible storage medium of claim 10, wherein the context criteria are satisfied if the user request was made in association with a search function.

17. The non-transitory machine-accessible storage medium of claim 10, wherein the user request is forwarded to the anonymous proxy automatically without user input.

18. An apparatus, comprising:

a memory to store instructions for a browser application; and

a processor, connected to the memory, to execute the instructions, wherein the instructions cause the processor to;

determine whether to send a user request to a remote anonymous proxy based on context criteria, wherein the determining is done by the browser application, and wherein the context criteria comprises one or more privacy laws determined based on a physical location of a content provider server; and

forward the user request to the remote anonymous proxy if the user request satisfies the context criteria, wherein the remote anonymous proxy is configured to privatize the user request by altering at least one type of user identifying information.

19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the context criteria are satisfied if the content provider has specific characteristics.

20. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the context criteria are satisfied if the content provider is a search site.

21. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the context criteria are satisfied if the user request was made in association with a search function.