Method and apparatus for substitution scheme for anonymizing personally identifiable information

• US 9,460,310 B2
• Filed: 03/15/2013
• Issued: 10/04/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Babel Street, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Dunami, Inc. (Babel Street, Inc.)
• Inventors: Butler, Patrick David, Marshall, Tony Brett, Jacobson, Mark F.
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, PHONG H
• Application Number:
  US13/842,242
• Publication Number:
  US 20140280261A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,299 Days
• Field of Search: 707/756
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6245 Protecting personal data, e.g. for financial or medical purposes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6254 by anonymising data, e.g. decorrelating personal data from the owner's identification

Abstract

In some embodiments, a system includes a software program capable of performing an aliasing function on the personally identifiable information (“PII”) of a subject. The software can associate the alias with the PII, and output the alias rather than the PII.

Claims

1. A non-transitory processor-readable medium storing code representing instructions to be executed by a processor, the code comprising code to cause the processor to:

perform an aliasing function on personally identifiable information of a subject to produce an alias for at least one piece of personally identifiable information, wherein the personally identifiable information includes a first name and a last name and the aliasing function includes;

identifying, based at least in part on the personally identifiable information of the subject, a plurality of characteristics of the subject including a gender of the subject and an ethnicity of the subject,

selecting an aliased first name based on the gender of the subject and the ethnicity of the subject, the aliased first name having a recognizable string of characters, and

selecting an aliased last name based on the ethnicity of the subject, the aliased last name having a recognizable string of characters;

associate the alias for the at least one piece of personally identifiable information including the aliased first name and the aliased last name with the personally identifiable information; and

send a signal including the alias for the at least one piece of personally identifiable information and not the personally identifiable information.

2. The non-transitory processor readable medium of claim 1, further comprising code to cause the processor to:

generate descriptive data based on the personally identifiable information;

associate the descriptive data with the personally identifiable information, wherein sending the signal including the alias for the at least one piece of personally identifiable information includes sending the descriptive data.

3. The non-transitory processor readable medium of claim 1, wherein the personally identifiable information includes a full name including the first name and the last name, and the aliasing function includes:

generating a random numeric or alphanumeric value; and

appending the random value to the combined aliased first name and aliased last name to produce an aliased full name.

4. The non-transitory processor readable medium of claim 1, wherein the plurality of characteristics of the subject include a period of popularity of the first name and wherein the selecting the aliased first name is further based on the period of popularity.

5. The non-transitory processor readable medium of claim 1, wherein the personally identifiable information includes a telephone number of the subject, and the aliasing function includes:

generating a string of four alphanumeric characters;

substituting the string of four alphanumeric characters for the last four digits of the telephone number; and

appending the substituted string of four alphanumeric characters to the remainder of the telephone number to produce an aliased telephone number.

6. The non-transitory processor readable medium of claim 1, wherein the personally identifiable information includes an email address of the subject, the email address includes an email provider and an account name, and the aliasing function includes:

selecting an aliased account name based on the plurality of characteristics of the subject;

and

appending the email provider to the aliased account name to produce an aliased email address.

7. The non-transitory processor readable medium of claim 1, wherein the personally identifiable information includes an account handle of the subject, and the aliasing function includes selecting an aliased account handle based on the plurality of characteristics of the subject.

8. The non-transitory processor readable medium of claim 1, wherein the personally identifiable information includes an address of the subject, and the aliasing function includes:

selecting an aliased street name and an aliased street number of the address;

and

appending a city, a state, and a zip code of the address of the subject to the aliased street number and aliased street name to produce an aliased address.

9. The non-transitory processor readable medium of claim 1, wherein the plurality of characteristics of the subject are identified based at least in part on information associated with the personally identifiable information.

10. The non-transitory processor readable medium of claim 9, wherein the information associated with the personally identifiable information includes at least one of a geographic location of the subject, a social media profile of the subject, or social media correspondence of the subject.

11. The non-transitory processor readable medium of claim 9, wherein the information associated with the personally identifiable information includes information from government records.

12. The non-transitory processor readable medium of claim 1, wherein:

the personally identifiable information of the subject is obtained from a social networking source that includes personally identifiable information for a plurality of subjects,

the non-transitory processor readable medium further comprising code to cause the processor to;

repeat the perform an aliasing function instruction, associate the alias with the personally identifiable information instruction, and send a signal instruction for multiple subjects in the plurality of subjects.

13. The non-transitory processor readable medium of claim 1, wherein:

the personally identifiable information of the subject is obtained from a private government source that includes personally identifiable information for a plurality of subjects,

the non-transitory processor readable medium further comprising code to cause the processor to;

repeat the perform an aliasing function instruction, associate the alias with the personally identifiable information instruction, and send a signal instruction for multiple subjects in the plurality of subjects.

14. The non-transitory processor readable medium of claim 12, wherein:

the personally identifiable information of multiple subjects from the plurality of subjects includes personally identifiable information contained in unstructured data,

the non-transitory processor readable medium further comprising code to cause the processor to;

identify the personally identifiable information in the unstructured data for multiple subjects from the plurality of subjects.

15. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

performing, using one or more processors of a computer system, an aliasing function on personally identifiable information of a subject to produce an alias for at least one piece of personally identifiable information, wherein the personally identifiable information includes a first name and a last name and the aliasing function includes;

identifying, based at least in part on the personally identifiable information of the subject, a plurality of characteristics of the subject including a gender of the subject and an ethnicity of the subject,

selecting an aliased first name based on the gender of the subject and the ethnicity of the subject, the aliased first name having a recognizable string of characters, and

selecting an aliased last name based on the ethnicity of the subject, the aliased last name having a recognizable string of characters;

associating, using the one or more processors, the alias for the at least one piece of personally identifiable information including the aliased first name and the aliased last name with the personally identifiable information; and

sending a signal, using the one or more processors, including the alias for the at least one piece of personally identifiable information and not the personally identifiable information.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 15, wherein the personally identifiable information includes a full name including the first name and the last name, and the aliasing function includes:

generating a random numeric or alphanumeric value, and

appending the random value to the combined aliased first name and the aliased last name to produce an aliased full name.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 15, wherein the plurality of characteristics of the subject are identified based at least in part on information associated with the personally identifiable information, the information associated with the personally identifiable information including at least one of a geographic location of the subject, a social media profile of the subject, or social media correspondence of the subject.

18. The computer-implemented method of claim 15, wherein the plurality of characteristics of the subject include a period of popularity of the first name and wherein the selecting the aliased first name is further based on the period of popularity.

19. The computer-implemented method of claim 15, wherein the subject is a first subject from a plurality of subjects, the method further comprising:

repeating the performing an aliasing function, the associating the alias for the at least one piece of personally identifiable information, and the sending a signal step for multiple subjects in the plurality of subjects.

20. The computer-implemented method of claim 15, wherein the plurality of characteristics of the subject are identified based at least in part on information associated with the personally identifiable information including information from government records.