System and method for retaining users' anonymity

• US 8,943,307 B2
• Filed: 01/15/2013
• Issued: 01/27/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 01/16/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amdocs Development Limited (Amdocs Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Cvidya Networks Ltd. (Amdocs Ltd.)
• Inventors: Solotorevsky, Gad
• Primary Examiner(s): Smithers, Matthew
• Application Number:
  US13/741,527
• Publication Number:
  US 20130138948A1
• Time in Patent Office: 742 Days
• Field of Search: 713/153, 705/63
• US Class Current: 713/153
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1403 Architecture for metering, charging or billing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/141 Indication of costs
• 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 63/0428 wherein the data content is protected, e.g. by encrypting or encapsulating the payload
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/58 based on statistics of usage or network monitoring

Abstract

A method and a system are provided for generating information that relates to services being utilized by a user, by which: at a user device, retrieving usage information that relates to services consumed by the user of the user device; forwarding by the user device the retrieved usage information towards a central processing unit; at the central processing unit, determining based on the received usage information and based on at least one pre-determined criterion associated with the services being consumed by the user, whether a message should be sent to that user; and if in the affirmative, sending a message to the user that relates to the received usage information, without logging any information that relates to the message being sent to the user, at the central processing unit.

Claims

1. A method for generating information that relates to services being utilized by a user, wherein the method comprises the steps of:

at a user device, retrieving usage information that relates to services consumed by the user of said user device;

forwarding by the user device the usage information thus retrieved, towards a central processing unit;

at the central processing unit, determining based on the received usage information and based on at least one pre-determined criterion associated with the services consumed by the user of the user device, whether a message should be sent to said user; and

if in the affirmative, sending a message to the user that relates to the received usage information, without logging any information that relates to the message being sent to the user, at said central processing unit;

wherein the message is generated based on history information derived either from the user device or from any other device, and wherein the history information is associated with amount of services that had been consumed by said user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the message comprises an indication that relates to the amount of services consumed by the user.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising a step of sending a confirmation message by the user in response to the message received.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one criterion associated with the consumption of services is defined for a given user device, or for a group of user devices.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the at least one criterion is at least partially based upon information received from the user of the user device.

6. A method for generating information that relates to services being utilized by a user, wherein the method comprises the steps of:

at a user device, retrieving usage information that relates to services consumed by the user of said user device;

forwarding by the user device the usage information thus retrieved, towards a central processing unit;

at the central processing unit, determining based on the received usage information and based on at least one pre-determined criterion associated with the services consumed by the user of the user device, whether a message should be sent to said user; and

if in the affirmative, sending a message to the user that relates to the received usage information, without logging any information that relates to the message being sent to the user, at said central processing unit,

wherein the step of determining whether a message should be sent to the user is based upon analyzing notifications provided by a plurality of user devices associated with a single user.

7. A method for generating information that relates to services being utilized by a user, wherein the method comprises the steps of:

at a user device, retrieving usage information that relates to services consumed by the user of said user device;

forwarding by the user device the usage information thus retrieved, towards a central processing unit;

at the central processing unit, determining based on the received usage information and based on at least one pre-determined criterion associated with the services consumed by the user of the user device, whether a message should be sent to said user; and

if in the affirmative, sending a message to the user that relates to the received usage information, without logging any information that relates to the message being sent to the user, at said central processing unit,

wherein the step of determining whether a message should be sent to the user further comprises analyzing a plurality of notifications received from one or more respective users and assigning a weight to risks associated with value add services that relate to this plurality of notifications.

8. A method for generating information that relates to services being utilized by a user, wherein the method comprises the steps of:

at a user device, retrieving usage information that relates to services consumed by the user of said user device;

forwarding by the user device the usage information thus retrieved, towards a central processing unit;

at the central processing unit, determining based on the received usage information and based on at least one pre-determined criterion associated with the services consumed by the user of the user device, whether a message should be sent to said user; and

if in the affirmative, sending a message to the user that relates to the received usage information, without logging any information that relates to the message being sent to the user, at said central processing unit,

wherein said method further comprising the steps of;

providing the user device with a unique ID and a unique private decryption key;

storing at the central processing unit a combination that comprises the unique ID and a public encryption key associated therewith, and details to enable communicating with the user'"'"'s device;

upon receiving usage information from the user'"'"'s device, processing the newly received usage information;

following the processing the new information, generating one or more messages for forwarding same towards the specific user device, and encrypting the one or more messages by using the public encryption key associated with the ID of said user'"'"'s device;

broadcasting the one or more encrypted messages to a plurality of users'"'"' devices associated with the central processing unit; and

retrieving the content of the one or more encrypted messages by the user device provided with the appropriate unique private decryption key, for which the one or more messages were generated.

9. A system for generating information that relates to services being utilized by a user, wherein the system comprising:

a plurality of user devices operative to retrieve usage information that relates to services consumed by the user of the user device, wherein each of the plurality of user devices is provide with a communication device adapted to forward the usage information thus retrieved, towards a central processing unit;

a central processing unit comprising a processor operative to determine based on the received usage information and based on at least one pre-determined criterion, whether a message should be generated for sending same to one or more of the users of the plurality of user devices; and

if in the affirmative, the processor is operative to generate one or more messages for the one or more respective users, wherein each of the one or more messages relates to the received usage information associated with a respective user that would receive that message, without logging any information that relates to the message being sent to that user,

wherein said processor is further operative to generate a set of a unique ID and a unique private decryption key to be provided to each of the plurality of user devices and wherein said central processing unit further comprising a storage for storing a combination that comprises the unique ID and a public encryption key associated therewith, and details to enable communicating with the user'"'"'s device;

wherein upon receiving new usage information from each of the plurality of user devices, said processor is adapted to process the received usage information and to generate one or more messages for forwarding same towards the specific user device from which new usage information has been received, to encrypt the one or more messages by using the public encryption key associated with the ID of said user'"'"'s device and to enable broadcasting of the one or more encrypted messages to the plurality of user devices; and

wherein the user device that sent the new usage information is operative to retrieve the content of the one or more encrypted messages by using its unique private decryption key.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein each of the one or more messages comprises an indication that relates to the amount of services consumed by the respective user.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein each of the plurality of user devices comprises operative to send a confirmation message towards the central processing unit in response to the message received by a respective user device.