System and method of applying adaptive privacy controls to lossy file types

• US 9,990,513 B2
• Filed: 12/31/2015
• Issued: 06/05/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 12/29/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Entefy Inc.
• Original Assignee: Entefy Inc.
• Inventors: Ghafourifar, Alston
• Primary Examiner(s): Nipa, Wasika
• Application Number:
  US14/986,072
• Publication Number:
  US 20160188893A1
• Time in Patent Office: 887 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6227 where protection concerns the structure of data, e.g. records, types, queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2111 Location-sensitive, e.g. geographical location, GPS
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2137 Time limited access, e.g. to a computer or data
• 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

The proliferation of personal computing devices in recent years, especially mobile personal computing devices, combined with a growth in the number of widely-used communications formats has led to increased concerns regarding the safety and security of documents and messages that are sent over networks. Users desire a system that provides for the setting of custom access permissions at a file-level or sub-file-level. Such a system may allow the user to apply customized privacy settings (and, optionally, encryption keys) differently to particular portions of a document—even if the document is of a ‘lossy’ file type, e.g., a JPEG image. According to some embodiments, the custom access permission settings may be implemented by obfuscating portions of the original file and then embedding “secret,” e.g., hidden and/or encrypted, versions of the obfuscated portions in parts of the data structure of the original lossy file before transmitting the file to the desired recipients.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising computer executable instructions stored thereon that when executed cause one or more processing units to:

receive an indication of a first protected portion of a file of a lossy file type, wherein the first protected portion comprises a sub-portion of the file;

generate first and second versions of the first protected portion of the file, wherein at least a part of the first version and the second version are identical, and wherein at least a part of the first version and the second version differ from each other;

receive a first access permission setting for the first version of the first protected portion of the file;

receive a second access permission setting for the second version of the first protected portion of the file;

receive an indication of a first recipient for the first version of the first protected portion;

receive an indication of a second recipient for the second version of the first protected portion;

generate an edited copy of the file that is obfuscated at a code level by generating modified pixel values corresponding to a location of the first protected portion to create an edited lossy file, wherein the obfuscation further comprises masking an original content of the file at the location of the first protected portion;

encrypt the first version of the first protected portion based, at least in part, on the first access permission settings and the first recipient;

encrypt the second version of the first protected portion based, at least in part, on the second access permission settings and the second recipient;

add the encrypted first and second versions of the first protected portion, associated with their respective access permission settings, back into the edited lossy file as hidden data within a data structure of the edited lossy file, wherein at least a part of the first version also masks the original content of the file at at least part of the location of the first protected portion; and

transmit the edited lossy file to the first and the second recipients.

2. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the lossy file type is an image file type.

3. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 2, wherein the instructions to add the first and second versions of the first protected portion, associated with their respective access permission settings, back into the edited lossy file as hidden data within the data structure of the edited lossy file further comprise instructions to:

insert the first and second versions of the first protected portion, associated with their respective access permission settings, into one or more header elements of the image file type'"'"'s data structure.

4. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the edited lossy file is configured such that the first protected portion is only viewable by a recipient in an authorized viewing application.

5. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the first access permission setting comprises an indication that the first recipient may access the first version of the first protected portion but not the second version of the first protected portion.

6. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the second access permission setting comprises an indication that the second recipient may access the second version of the first protected portion but not the first version of the first protected portion.

7. A system, comprising:

a memory; and

one or more processing units, communicatively coupled to the memory, wherein the memory stores instructions to configure the one or more processing units to;

receive an indication of a first protected portion of a file of a lossy file type, wherein the first protected portion comprises a sub-portion of the file;

generate first and second versions of the first protected portion of the file, wherein at least a part of the first version and the second version are identical, and wherein at least a part of the first version and the second version differ from each other;

receive a first access permission setting for the first version of the first protected portion;

receive an indication of a first recipient for the first version of the protected portion;

receive a second access permission setting for the second version of the first protected portion;

receive an indication of a second recipient for the second version of the protected portion;

generate an edited copy of the file that is obfuscated at a code level by generating modified pixel values corresponding to a location of the first protected portion to create an edited lossy file, wherein the obfuscation further comprises masking an original content of the file at the location of the first protected portion;

encrypt the first version of the first protected portion based, at least in part, on the first access permission settings and the first recipient;

encrypt the second version of the first protected portion based, at least in part, on the second access permission settings and the second recipient;

add the encrypted first and second versions of the first protected portion, associated with their respective access permission settings, back into the edited lossy file as hidden data within a data structure of the edited lossy file, wherein at least a part of the first version also masks the original content of the file at at least part of the location of the first protected portion; and

transmit the edited lossy file to the first recipient and the second recipients.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the instructions are further configured to cause the one or more processing units to:

encrypt the first version of the first protected portion based, at least in part, on the first access permission setting.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the instructions are further configured to cause the one or more processing units to:

encrypt the first version of the first protected portion based, at least in part, on the first recipient.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein the lossy file type is an image file type.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the instructions to add the first version of the first protected portion, associated with its respective access permission settings, back into the edited lossy file as hidden data within the data structure of the edited lossy file further comprise instructions to:

insert the first version of the first protected portion, associated with its respective access permission settings, into one or more header elements of the image file type'"'"'s data structure.

12. The system of claim 7, wherein the edited lossy file is configured such that the first protected portion is only viewable by a recipient in an authorized viewing application.

13. The system of claim 7, wherein the first access permission setting comprises an indication that the first recipient may access the first version of the first protected portion.

14. The system of claim 7, wherein the first access permission setting comprises an indication that the first recipient may not access the second version of the first protected portion.

15. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

receiving, by one or more hardware processor, an indication of a first protected portion of a file of a lossy file type, wherein the first protected portion comprises a sub-portion of the file;

generate, by the one or more hardware processor, first and second versions of the first protected portion of the file, wherein at least a part of the first version and the second version are identical, and wherein at least a part of the first version and the second version differ from each other;

receiving, by the one or more hardware processor, a first access permission setting for the first version of the first protected portion;

receiving, by the one or more hardware processor, an indication of a first recipient for the first version of the first protected portion;

receiving, by the one or more hardware processor, a second access permission setting for the second version of the first protected portion;

receiving, by the one or more hardware processor, an indication of a second recipient for the second version of the first protected portion;

generating, by the one or more hardware processor, an edited copy of the file that is obfuscated at a code level by generating modified pixel values corresponding to a location of the first protected portion to create an edited lossy file, wherein the obfuscation further comprises masking an original content of the file at the location of the first protected portion;

encrypting, by the one or more hardware processor, the first version of the first protected portion based, at least in part, on the first access permission setting and the first recipient;

encrypting, by the one or more hardware processor, the second version of the first protected portion based, at least in part, on the second access permission setting and the second recipient;

adding, by the one or more hardware processor, the encrypted first and second versions of the first protected portion, associated with their respective access permission settings, back into the edited lossy file as hidden data within a data structure of the edited lossy file, wherein at least a part of the first version also masks the original content of the file at at least part of the location of the first protected portion; and

transmitting, by the one or more hardware processor, the edited lossy file to the first recipient and the second recipient.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein adding the encrypted first version of the first protected portion, associated with its respective access permission settings, back into the edited lossy file as hidden data within the data structure of the edited lossy file further comprises inserting, by the one or more hardware processor, the encrypted first version of the first protected portion, associated with its respective access permission settings, into one or more header elements of the lossy file type'"'"'s data structure.