Information management method and information management system

• US 9,898,620 B2
• Filed: 09/18/2013
• Issued: 02/20/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd. (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd. (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Unagami, Yuji, Ohmori, Motoji, Umetani, Hideo, Sasagawa, Michiko, Isogai, Kazunori
• Primary Examiner(s): Pyzocha, Michael
• Application Number:
  US14/368,048
• Publication Number:
  US 20140325592A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,616 Days
• Field of Search: 726 1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6254 by anonymising data, e.g. decorrelating personal data from the owner's identification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2101 Auditing as a secondary aspect
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

An information management method includes: receiving, from a manufacturer server via a network, device history information indicating a history of an operation of a device used by a first user and first anonymized user information generated by anonymizing, according to a predetermined rule, first user information including attribute information which allows identification of the first user; receiving, from a service provider server different from the manufacturer server via the network, service history information indicating a history of service used by a second user and second anonymized user information generated by anonymizing, according to the predetermined rule, second user information including attribute information which allows identification of the second user; and associating the device history information and the service history information and managing them as composite information, when the first anonymized user information and the second anonymized user information are determined to be identical or similar.

Claims

1. An information management method executed by an information management apparatus which manages information, the information management apparatus including a non-transitory memory storing a program and a hardware processor that executes the program so as to perform the information management method, the information management method comprising:

receiving, from a first server via a network, device history information and first anonymized user information, the device history information indicating a history of an operation of a device used by a first user, and the first anonymized user information being generated by anonymizing, according to a predetermined rule, first user information including attribute information which allows identification of the first user and attribute information which does not allow identification of the first user, by deleting and truncating information which allows identification of the first user based on the predetermined rule;

receiving, from a second server, via the network, service history information and second anonymized user information different from the first anonymized user information, the service history information indicating a history of service used by a second user, the second anonymized user information being generated by anonymizing, according to the predetermined rule, second user information including attribute information which allows identification of the second user and attribute information which does not allow identification of the first user, by deleting and truncating information which allows identification of the first user based on the predetermined rule, and the second server being different from the first server;

associating the device history information and the service history information with each other and managing, as composite information, the device history information and the service history information associated with each other, when the first user identified using the first anonymized user information and the second user identified using the second anonymized user information are determined to be similar, based on commonality between attribute information which is not anonymized, does not allow identification of the first user, and is included in the first anonymized user information and attribute information which is not anonymized, does not allow identification of the second user, and is included in the second anonymized user information;

generating proposal information indicating a first proposal of service to the first user and a second proposal of service to the second user, based on the composite information; and

providing the generated proposal information including the first proposal to the first user via the first server and providing the generated proposal information including the second proposal to the second user via the second server.

2. The information management method according to claim 1,

wherein the predetermined rule is determined based on a combination of a type of the operation indicated by the device history information stored in the first server and a type of the service indicated by the service history information stored in the second server.

3. The information management method according to claim 1,

wherein the predetermined rule specifies an attribute information item to be deleted or abstracted among one or more items of the attribute information included in the first user information and the second user information.

4. The information management method according to claim 1,

wherein the first anonymized user information includes, as an item of the attribute information, at least one of a gender, an age, an age range, an address, and an occupation of the first user, and the second anonymized user information includes, as an item of the attribute information, at least one of a gender, an age, an age range, an address, and an occupation of the second user.

5. The information management method according to claim 1,

wherein the proposal information includes a control program for controlling the device.

6. The information management method according to claim 1, comprising:

generating proposal information indicating a proposal of service to the second user, based on the composite information; and

providing the generated proposal information to the second user via the second server.

7. The information management method according to claim 1,

wherein the first user and the second user are a same user.

8. The information management method according to claim 1,

wherein the first user and the second user are different users.

9. The information management method according to claim 1,

wherein the service history information is information including a history of health management service used by the second user, the health management service including medical care.

10. The information management method according to claim 1,

wherein the service history information is information including a history of educational service used by the second user.

11. The information management method according to claim 1,

wherein the service history information is information including a history of transportation service used by the second user.

12. The information management method according to claim 1, further comprising

transmitting the predetermined rule to the first server and the second server via the network.

13. The information management method according to claim 1, wherein the first anonymized user information received from the first server includes a temporary identifier for identifying a user ID for identification of the first user, and

the second anonymized user information received from the second server includes a temporary identifier for identifying a user ID for identification of the second user.

14. An information management system comprising:

an information management apparatus which manages information;

a first server which stores device history information indicating a history of an operation of a device used by a first user and first user information including attribute information which allows identification of the first user; and

a second server which stores service history information indicating a history of service used by a second user and second user information including attribute information which allows identification of the second user,

wherein the information management apparatus includes a non-transitory memory storing a program and a hardware processor that executes the program so as to;

receive, from a first server via a network, the device history information and first anonymized user information which is generated by anonymizing, according to a predetermined rule, the first user information with attribute information which does not allow identification of the first user, by deleting and truncating information which allows identification of the first user based on the predetermined rule;

receive, from a second server via the network, the service history information and second anonymized user information different from the first anonymized user information which is generated by anonymizing, according to the predetermined rule, the second user information with attribute information which does not allow identification of the first user, by deleting and truncating information which allows identification of the first user based on the predetermined rule;

when the information management apparatus determines that the first user identified using the first anonymized user information and the second user identified using the second anonymized user information are similar, based on commonality between attribute information which is not anonymized, does not allow identification of the first user, and is included in the first anonymized user information and attribute information which is not anonymized, does not allow identification of the second user, and is included in the second anonymized user information, the information management apparatus associates the device history information and the service history information with each other and manages, as composite information, the device history information and the service history information associated with each other,

generate proposal information indicating a first proposal of service to the first user and a second proposal of service to the second user, based on the composite information, and

provide the generated proposal information including the first proposal to the first user via the first server and provide the generated proposal information including the second proposal to the second user via the second server.

15. The information management system according to claim 14,

wherein the information management apparatus further transmits the predetermined rule to the first server and the second server via the network,

the first server

generates the first anonymized user information from the first user information by anonymizing, according to the predetermined rule, the first user information stored in the first server, and

transmits the device history information stored in the first server and the generated first anonymized user information to the information management apparatus, and

the second server

generates the second anonymized user information from the second user information by anonymizing, according to the predetermined rule, the second user information stored in the second server, and

transmits the service history information stored in the second server and the generated second anonymized user information to the information management apparatus.