Techniques for sharing data

• US 9,432,182 B2
• Filed: 06/17/2014
• Issued: 08/30/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Inventors: Barrus, John W., Sasaki, Tomohiko, Graham, Jamey, Kojima, Sharon
• Primary Examiner(s): CHANG, KENNETH W
• Application Number:
  US14/307,346
• Publication Number:
  US 20150039888A1
• Time in Patent Office: 805 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6254 by anonymising data, e.g. decorrelating personal data from the owner's identification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2107 File encryption
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/24 Key scheduling, i.e. generating round keys or sub-keys for block encryption
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0819 Key transport or distribution, i.e. key establishment techniques where one party creates or otherwise obtains a secret value, and securely transfers it to the other(s) network architectures or network communication protocols for key distribution in a packet data network H04L63/062
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/14 using a plurality of keys or algorithms

Abstract

Techniques for sharing data between users in a manner that maintains anonymity of the users. Tokens are generated and provided to users for sharing data. A token comprises information encoding an identifier and an encryption key. A user may use a token to upload data that is to be shared. The data to be shared is encrypted using the encryption key associated with the token and the encrypted data is stored such that it can be accessed using the identifier associated with the token. A user may then use a token to access the shared data. The identifier associated with the token being used to access the shared data is used to access the data and the encryption key associated with the token is used to decrypt the data. Data is shared anonymously without revealing the identity of the users using the tokens.

Claims

1. A method of sharing data, the method comprising:

receiving, at a first computer, information identifying data to be shared;

receiving, at the first computer, a first token, the first token generated prior to the receiving the information identifying the data to be shared, the first token comprising an encryption key;

encrypting, by the first computer, the data to be shared using the encryption key to generate encrypted data;

causing, by the first computer, the encrypted data to be stored at a location;

receiving, at the first computer or at a second computer, a second token generated prior to the receiving the information identifying the data to be shared, the second token comprising the encryption key and a location identifier associated with the location;

accessing, by the first computer or by the second computer, the encrypted data using the location identifier and the encryption key determined from the second token;

decrypting, by the first computer or by the second computer, the encrypted data using the encryption key determined from the second token to produce the data; and

enabling access to the data.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the second token is a physical token.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising:

generating at least the second token based on generating a machine-readable code encoding the location identifier and the encryption key of the second token.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the first token is a physical token.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

printing the first token and the second token on a single physical medium, wherein the single physical medium enables the first token to be separated from the second token.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the first token comprises a barcode, quick response code, or glyph.

7. A method of sharing data, the method comprising:

receiving, at a first device having one or more hardware processors, information identifying a first data set to be shared;

receiving, at the first device, a first token, the first token generated prior to the receiving the information identifying the first data set, the first token comprising a first encryption key;

encrypting, by the first device, the first data set using the first key to produce a first encrypted data set;

causing, by the first device, the first encrypted data set to be stored at a location;

obtaining, by the first device or by a second device having one or more hardware processors, information from a second token, the second token generated prior to the receiving the information identifying a first data set to be shared;

determining, by the first device or by the second device, a location identifier indicative of the location and a second key using the information from the second token;

accessing, by the first device or by the second device, the first encrypted data set at the location indicated by the location identifier;

decrypting, by the first device or by the second device, the first encrypted data set using the second key to obtain the first data set;

receiving, at the first device or the second device, a second data set to be shared;

encrypting, by the first device or the second device, the second data set using the second key to produce a second encrypted data set; and

causing, by the first device or the second device, the second encrypted data set to be stored using the location identifier of the second token.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the second encrypted data set is stored at the location concurrently with the first encrypted data set.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the second encrypted data set is stored at the location as a different version of the first encrypted data set.

10. The method of claim 7, further comprising accessing, by the first device or by the second device, a version of an encrypted data set stored at the location, wherein the version is the most recent encrypted data set stored at the location.

11. The method of claim 7, further comprising accessing, by the first device or by the second device, a plurality of versions of encrypted data sets stored at the location.

12. A system of sharing data, the system comprising:

one or more hardware processors; and

one or more non-transitory memory storing a set of instructions, which when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to;

receive information identifying data to be shared;

receive a first token, the first token generated prior to the receiving the information identifying the data to be shared, the first token comprising an encryption key;

encrypt the data using the encryption key to produce encrypted data;

cause the encrypted data to be stored at a location in a manner accessible using an identifier indicative of an address associated with the location;

obtain information from a second token, the second token generated prior to the receiving the information identifying data to be shared;

determine the identifier indicative of the address associated with the location and the encryption key from the second token;

access the encrypted data using the identifier indicative of the address associated with the location determined from the information obtained from the second token;

decrypt the encrypted data using the encryption key determined from the information obtained from the second token to produce the data; and

enable access to the decrypted data.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein the second token is a physical token.

14. The system of claim 12 wherein the location is configured to store a plurality of versions of data stored at the location using the first token or the second token.

15. A method comprising:

generating a first token and a second physical token, each of the first token and the second physical token including an address identifier associated with an address of a location, the first token including an encryption key and the second physical token including a decryption key corresponding to the encryption key;

receiving, by one of one or more computer systems, information identifying data to be shared subsequent to the generating the first token and the second physical token;

determining, by the one of the one or more computer systems, the address of the location through the use of the address identifier from the first token;

determining, by the one of the one or more computer systems, the encryption key from the first token;

encrypting, by the one of the one or more computer systems, the data using the encryption key to generate encrypted data; and

causing, by the one of the one or more computer systems, storage of the encrypted data at the location; and

enabling the encrypted data to be accessed and decrypted using the address identifier and decryption key of the second physical token.