Customer data privacy implementation

• US 8,326,767 B1
• Filed: 01/31/2005
• Issued: 12/04/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 01/31/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: T-Mobile Innovations LLC (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Original Assignee: Sprint Communications Company LP (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Inventors: Ibitayo, Kemi Y., Pogiri, Srinivas, Crews, John C., Ramanujan, Anu, Haverkamp, Laura
• Primary Examiner(s): Nigh, James D
• Application Number:
  US11/047,021
• Time in Patent Office: 2,864 Days
• Field of Search: 705/78
• US Class Current: 705/78
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/562 Brokering proxy services

Abstract

A system for privacy management of customer data is provided. The system includes a data store, a plurality of applications, a central broker and a distributed component. The data store maintains customer privacy data used by the applications. The central broker provides the applications with customer data and manages the customer privacy data according to a set of rules regarding access to the customer privacy data. The distributed component is distributed from the central broker and is operable to communicate with the central broker to obtain at least some of the customer data. The distributed component provides at least some of the customer privacy data to the applications according to the set of rules regarding access to the customer privacy data.

Claims

1. A system for privacy management of customer data comprising:

a computer readable storage medium comprising a central broker encoded with computer-executable instructions when executed by a computer causes the central broker to provide customer data including customer privacy data from a data store component in response to a request for the customer data, and to provide the customer data according to a set of rules regarding access to the customer privacy data; and

a computer readable storage medium comprising a distributed component, the distributed component distributed from the central broker, installed on a customer device, and encoded with computer-executable instructions when executed by the customer device causes the distributed component to receive the request for the customer data from at least one application installed on the customer device, determine whether a copy of the customer data is stored on the distributed component, provide the copy of the customer data to the at least one application according to the set of rules regarding access to the customer privacy data in response to a determination that the copy of the customer data is stored on the distributed component, request the customer data from the central broker in response to a determination that the copy of the customer data is not stored on the distributed component, receive the customer data from the central broker in response to requesting the customer data from the central broker, provide the customer data to the at least one application according to the set of rules, and copy the customer data to the distributed component in response to receiving the customer data from the central broker.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein at least some of the customer privacy data obtained from the central broker stored in the data store component is stored in a temporary cache distributed from the central broker.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the distributed component and the at least some of the customer privacy data stored in the temporary cache are located on a first computer system and the central broker is provided on a second computer system.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein the at least some of the customer privacy data obtained by the distributed component is stored in a replication of the customer privacy data in the data store component.

5. The system of claim 1, further comprising an interface component in the distributed component that translates communications between the at least one application and the distributed component.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the interface component communicates with the at least one application using one of a hypertext transfer protocol and Enterprise Java Beans.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising a load balancing component of the distributed component that distributes a plurality of data requests received by the distributed component from the at least one application between a plurality of servers to balance work between the plurality of servers.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the load balancing component refrains from sending data request to an inoperable one of the plurality of the servers.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the distributed component sends the plurality of data requests to at least one of the plurality of servers in one of a parallel manner and a batch manner.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the central broker sends replies to the plurality of data requests in one of a parallel manner and a batch manner.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein a portion of the at least some of the customer privacy data obtained by the distributed component is temporarily maintained by the distributed component for subsequent display by one of a mobile telecommunications handset and a workstation computer when requested by a user of one of the mobile telecommunications handset and the workstation computer.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the customer device is one of a mobile telecommunications handset and a workstation computer.

13. A method for enabling a distributed customer data privacy management component, the method comprising:

providing a distributed component that communicates with a central broker and obtains customer data maintained in a data store component, wherein the customer data includes customer privacy data, and wherein the central broker provides the customer data to at least one application installed on a customer device according to a set of rules regarding access to the customer privacy data;

selectively distributing the distributed component from the central broker to the customer device and installing the distributed component on the customer device;

receiving, by the distributed component, a request for the customer data from the at least one application;

determining, by the distributed component, whether a copy of the customer data is stored on the distributed component;

providing, by the distributed component, the copy of the customer data to the at least one application according to the set of rules in response to a determination that the copy of the customer data is stored on the distributed component;

requesting, by the distributed component, the customer data from the central broker in response to a determination that the copy of the customer data is not stored on the distributed component;

receiving, by the distributed component, the customer data from the central broker in response to requesting the customer data from the central broker;

providing, by the distributed component, the customer data to the at least one application according to the set of rules in response to receiving the customer data from the central broker; and

selecting a portion of the customer data including the customer privacy data to cache locally to the distributed component in response to receiving the customer data from the central broker.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising selecting whether to provide requests for data from the distributed component to the central broker in one of a serial manner and batch manner.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising selecting whether the central broker processes the requests from the distributed component in one of a parallel manner or batch manner.

16. The method of claim 13, further comprising selecting whether to load balance requests for data from the distributed component between servers.

17. A distributed system for privacy management of customer data comprising:

a computer readable storage medium comprising a central broker encoded with computer-executable instructions when executed by a processor computer causes the central broker to provide customer data including customer privacy data from a data store component in response to a request for the customer data, and to provide the customer data according to a set of rules regarding access to the customer privacy data;

a computer readable storage medium comprising a distributed component encoded with computer-executable instructions, when distributed from the central broker, installed on a customer device, and executed by the customer device causes the distributed component to receive the request from at least one application installed on the customer device, determine whether a copy of the customer data is stored on the distributed component, provide the copy of the customer data to the at least one application according to the set of rules in response to a determination that the copy of the customer data is stored on the distributed component, request the customer data from the central broker in response to a determination that the copy of the customer data is not stored on the distributed component, receive the customer data from the central broker in response to requesting the customer data from the central broker, and provide the customer data to the at least one application according to the set of rules regarding access to the customer privacy data in response to receiving the customer data from the central broker;

a computer readable storage medium comprising a data selection component encoded with computer-executable instructions when executed by the customer device causes the data selection component to communicate with the distributed component and receive user selections that identify one of a portion of the customer data, a replication of an entire customer data, and a combination thereof of the customer data to maintain locally to the distributed component in response to receiving the customer data from the central broker; and

a computer readable storage medium comprising a load balancing component encoded with computer-executable instructions when executed by the customer device causes the load balancing component to communicate with the distributed component to selectably load balance between servers requests for data from the distributed component to the central broker.

18. The distributed system of claim 17, further comprising:

a first processing component that communicates with the distributed component to promote processing of the requests for data by the distributed component in a batch manner.

19. The distributed system of claim 17, further comprising:

a first selectable processing component that promotes batch processing of replies by the central broker of the requests for data by the distributed component.

20. The distributed system of claim 17, further comprising:

a first selectable processing component that promotes parallel processing of replies by the central broker of the requests for data by the distributed component.

21. The distributed system of claim 17, further comprising:

a search component portion of the distributed component that requests a group of records of customer data and receives an identifier based with a requested first group of records of customer data, wherein the search component portion uses the identifier to submit with a request for a second group of records of customer data, the identifier used to determine a beginning of the second group of customer records to be sent to the distributed component.