Systems and methods for protecting information displayed on a user interface of a device

• US 9,928,371 B2
• Filed: 11/19/2014
• Issued: 03/27/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 11/19/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: PayPal, Inc. (PayPal Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Papal Incorporated
• Inventors: Brown, Scott William
• Primary Examiner(s): Jamshidi, Ghodrat
• Application Number:
  US14/548,071
• Publication Number:
  US 20160140349A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,224 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/602 Providing cryptographic facilities or services
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/84 output devices, e.g. displays or monitors
• CPC Class Codes: G09C 5/00 Ciphering apparatus or methods not provided for in the preceding groups, e.g. involving the concealment or deformation of graphic data such as designs, written or printed messages

Abstract

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a device having a display component that protects displayed information. In an example, a system includes a user interface of a device comprising a display module, wherein the user interface receives information entered by a user of the device. The system also includes a detector that detects surroundings around the device or the user of the device. The system further includes at least one hardware processor in communication with the user interface and the detector that automatically protects some or all of the information based on the detected surroundings and causes the automatically protected information to be displayed on the display module.

Claims

1. A computer system comprising:

a non-transitory memory storing instructions; and

one or more hardware processors coupled to the non-transitory memory and configured to read the instructions from the non-transitory memory to cause the computer system to perform operations comprising;

providing, by one or more of the hardware processors, a user interface comprising a first user interface option to display a group of fields as masked and additional user interface options each corresponding to at least one of the fields, wherein selection of one of the additional user interface options causes data of an associated field to be displayed as masked;

receiving, from a first computing device, a selection for one of the additional user interface options from a user at a first physical location;

causing masking of data of a field associated with the selected additional user interface option at the first physical location;

automatically masking the data of the selected field associated with the additional user interface option at a second physical location different than the first physical location based on determining that the first physical location is associated with the second physical location;

detecting a second computing device at the second physical location; and

causing unmasking of the masked data of the field associated with the selected additional user interface option at the second physical location based on the detecting.

2. The computer system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the additional user interface options allows a user to mask a plurality of fields associated with a section of the user interface.

3. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the data of the selected field is partially masked.

4. A computer system comprising:

a non-transitory memory storing instructions; and

one or more hardware processors coupled to the non-transitory memory and configured to read the instructions from the non-transitory memory to cause the computer system to perform operations comprising;

receiving, by one or more of the hardware processors, user information for display on a user interface of a first computing device at a first physical location;

detecting, by one or more of the hardware processors, surroundings of the first computing device at the first physical location;

automatically masking the user information on the user interface based on a user preference associated with the detected surroundings of the first physical location;

automatically masking, by one or more of the hardware processors, the user information on the user interface at a second physical location different than the first physical location based on the user preference and determining that the second physical location is associated with the first physical location; and

automatically removing, by one or more of the hardware processors, the masking applied to the user information at the second physical location based on detecting a second computing device in proximity to the first computing device at the second physical location, the second computing device being associated with a trusted party.

5. The computer system of claim 4, wherein the detecting indicates that the first physical location is a public environment.

6. The computer system of claim 4, wherein the masking is automatically removed based on a determined identity of the trusted party associated with the second computing device.

7. The computer system of claim 4, wherein a current user of the second computing device shares an account associated with the user information.

8. The computer system of claim 4, wherein the user information further is masked at the first physical location based on previous masking of the user information performed by an associated user.

9. The computer system of claim 4, wherein the trusted party is associated with a contacts list associated with the first computing device.

10. The computer system of claim 4, wherein some of the user information is displayed as unmasked data on the user interface when the detecting indicates that the first computing device is located in a trusted environment.

11. The computer system of claim 4, wherein the detecting involves a geolocation services component for detecting a current physical location of the first computing device.

12. The computer system of claim 11, wherein the current physical location detected by the geolocation services component is associated with a physical location where the user information is to be masked.

13. The computer system of claim 4, wherein a detector determines the surroundings, at least in part, based on one or more IP addresses or wireless nodes associated with the first computing device.

14. The computer system of claim 4, wherein the operations further comprise:

masking the user information when the detecting indicates that the surroundings comprise a public location.

15. The computer system of claim 4, wherein the first computing device is participating in an e-commerce transaction at the first physical location.

16. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving, by one or more hardware processors, user information for display on a user interface of a first computing device;

detecting, by one or more of the hardware processors, surroundings of the first computing device at a first physical location;

masking, by one or more of the hardware processors, on the display a first part of the user information based on the detecting of the surroundings and one or more user preferences associated with the surroundings; and

automatically masking, by one or more of the hardware processors, the user information on the display at a second physical location different than the first physical location at a later time based on determining that the second physical location is associated with the first physical location.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 16, further comprising:

masking all of the user information when the detecting indicates that a second computing device associated with an untrusted person is present in the surroundings.

18. The computer-implemented method of claim 16, further comprising removing at least a portion of the masking of the user information at the first physical location when a second computing device associated with a trusted person is detected in the surroundings.

19. The computer-implemented method of claim 16, wherein the user interface is a page associated with an electronic transaction.

20. A non-transitory machine-readable medium having stored thereon machine-readable instructions executable to cause a machine to perform operations comprising:

receiving user information for display on a user interface of a first computing device;

detecting surroundings associated with the first computing device at a first physical location;

masking, the user information on the display at the first physical location based on a user preference and detecting a second computing device associated with an untrusted person in the surroundings at the first physical location; and

masking, the user information on the display at an unknown physical location different than the first physical location based on determining a plurality of common attributes between the first physical location and the unknown physical location.