Method and apparatus for generating privacy profiles

• US 10,474,840 B2
• Filed: 02/10/2016
• Issued: 11/12/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 10/23/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Acoustic, L.P.
• Original Assignee: Acoustic, L.P.
• Inventors: Powell, Travis Spence, Caspi, Nadav, Wenig, Robert I., Herda, Wolf, Dietrich, Gerard
• Primary Examiner(s): Vu, Phy Anh T
• Application Number:
  US15/040,178
• Publication Number:
  US 20160162704A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,371 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/604 Tools and structures for managing or administering access control systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6245 Protecting personal data, e.g. for financial or medical purposes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6263 during internet communication, e.g. revealing personal data from cookies
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2117 User registration
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2141 Access rights, e.g. capability lists, access control lists, access tables, access matrices
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/10 for controlling access to devices or network resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/20 for managing network security; network security policies in general filtering policies H04L63/0227

Abstract

A privacy processing system may use privacy rules to filter sensitive personal information from web session data. The privacy processing system may generate privacy profiles or privacy metadata that identifies how often the privacy rules are called, how often the privacy rules successfully complete actions, and the processing time required to execute the privacy rules. The privacy profiles may be used to detect irregularities in the privacy filtering process that may be associated with a variety of privacy filtering and web session problems.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

capturing, by at least one processing device, interactions during a web session;

filtering, by the at least one processing device, sensitive personal information from captured web session data in accordance with one or more privacy rules identifying sensitive personal information to prevent display of the sensitive personal information;

determining, by the at least one processing device, a first average of a privacy metric for a privacy rule identifying sensitive personal information and associated with a first time period, wherein the privacy metric indicates a statistical dimension associated with the privacy rule for the filtering of the web session data captured from the interactions within the web session;

determining, by the at least one processing device, a second average of the privacy metric for the privacy rule associated with a second time period;

comparing, by the at least one processing device, the first average with the second average to determine a deviation;

determining, by the at least one processing device, irregularities of the privacy rule for the filtering of the web session data based on the deviation between the first average of the privacy metric and the second average of the privacy metric being outside of a threshold range; and

replaying, by the at least one processing device, the web session using the web session data with the sensitive personal information filtered therefrom to identify the irregularities of the privacy rule in the filtering.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein:

determining the first average includes;

aggregating, by the at least one processing device, a first set of statistical dimensions associated with the privacy rule applied within the web session during the first time period; and

averaging, by the at least one processing device, the aggregated first set of statistical dimensions to produce the first average; and

determining the second average includes;

aggregating, by the at least one processing device, a second set of statistical dimensions associated with the privacy rule applied within the web session during the second time period; and

averaging, by the at least one processing device, the aggregated second set of statistical dimensions to produce the second average.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising identifying, by the at least one processing device, the deviation between the first average and the second average based on the comparison of the first average with the second average, wherein determining irregularities of the privacy rule for the filtering of the web session data includes determining, by the at least one processing device, that the filtering of the web session data had been improperly performed in response to identifying the deviation.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising triggering, by the at least one processing device, a notification of improper performance of the filtering of the web session data in response to determining that the filtering of the web session data had been improperly performed.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating, by the at least one processing device, a standard deviation associated with the privacy metric for the first average, wherein determining irregularities of the privacy rule for the filtering of the web session data includes:

determining, by the at least one processing device, an upper threshold value and a lower threshold value based on the standard deviation from the first average; and

determining, by the at least one processing device, whether the second average is within the upper threshold value and the lower threshold value based on the comparison of the first average and the second average.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

obtaining, by the at least one processing device, a first set of document object models (DOMs) captured from interactions with the web session during the first time period in response to determination that the filtering of the web session data has been improperly performed;

obtaining, by the at least one processing device, a second set of DOMs captured from interactions with the web session during the second time period in response to determination that the filtering of the web session data has been improperly performed;

identifying, by the at least one processing device, at least one DOM difference between the first set and the second set; and

triggering, by the at least one processing device, a notification in response to identification of the at least one DOM difference.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the privacy metric indicates a successful completion rate of the privacy rule that performs the filtering of the web session data.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the privacy metric indicates an execution time for the privacy rule that performs the filtering of the web session data.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the interactions within the web session are interactions with a particular web page.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the interactions within the web session are interactions with a particular web browser.

11. A computer program product for determination of whether filtering of web session data had been properly performed, the computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions executable by at least one device to cause the at least one device to:

capture interactions during a web session;

filter sensitive personal information from captured web session data in accordance with one or more privacy rules identifying sensitive personal information to prevent display of the sensitive personal information;

determine a first average of a privacy metric for a privacy rule identifying sensitive personal information and associated with a first time period, wherein the privacy metric indicates a statistical dimension associated with the privacy rule for the filtering of the web session data captured from the interactions within the web session;

determine a second average of the privacy metric for the privacy rule associated with a second time period;

compare the first average with the second average to determine a deviation;

determine irregularities of the privacy rule for the filtering of the web session data based on the deviation between the first average of the privacy metric and the second average of the privacy metric being outside of a threshold range; and

replay the web session using the web session data with the sensitive personal information filtered therefrom to identify the irregularities of the privacy rule in the filtering.

12. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein:

the determination of the first average includes;

to aggregate a first set of statistical dimensions associated with the privacy rule applied within the web session during the first time period; and

to average the aggregated first set of statistical dimensions to produce the first average; and

the determination of the second average includes;

to aggregate a second set of statistical dimensions associated with the privacy rule applied within the web session during the second time period; and

to average the aggregated second set of statistical dimensions to produce the second average.

13. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the program instructions executable by the at least one device are to further cause the at least one device to:

obtain a first set of document object models (DOMs) captured from interactions within the web session during the first time period in response to determination that the filtering of the web session data had been improperly performed;

obtain a second set of DOMs captured from interactions with the web session during the second time period in response to determination that the filtering of the web session data had been improperly performed;

identify at least one DOM difference between the first set and the second set; and

trigger a notification in response to identification of the at least one DOM difference.

14. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the privacy metric indicates an execution time for the privacy rule that performs the filtering of the web session data.

15. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the interactions within the web session are interactions with a particular web page.

16. An apparatus, comprising:

a memory device configured to store privacy metrics associated with a web session; and

at least one processor to;

capture interactions during a web session;

filter sensitive personal information from captured web session data in accordance with one or more privacy rules identifying sensitive personal information to prevent display of the sensitive personal information;

determine a first average of a privacy metric, selected from the privacy metrics stored in the memory device, for a privacy rule identifying sensitive personal information and associated with a first time period, wherein the privacy metric indicates a statistical dimension associated with the privacy rule for the filtering of the web session data captured from the interactions within the web session;

determine a second average of the privacy metric for the privacy rule associated with a second time period;

compare the first average with the second average to determine a deviation;

determine irregularities of the privacy rule for the filtering of the web session data based on the deviation between the first average of the privacy metric and the second average of the privacy metric being outside of a threshold range; and

replay the web session using the web session data with the sensitive personal information filtered therefrom to identify the irregularities of the privacy rule in the filtering.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein to determine irregularities of the privacy rule for the filtering of the web session data includes to determine that the filtering of the web session data had been improperly performed based on the comparison of the first average with the second average, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:

identify at least one instance where the privacy metric associated with the second time period deviates from the first average; and

store an indication of the at least one instance as an entry within a log file stored on the memory device.

18. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to generate a standard deviation associated with the first average, and wherein to determine irregularities of the privacy rule for the filtering of the web session data includes:

to determine an upper threshold value and a lower threshold value based on the standard deviation from the first average; and

to determine whether the second average is within the upper threshold value and the lower threshold value based on the comparison of the first average with the second average.

19. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the privacy metric indicates an execution time for the privacy rule that performs the filtering of the web session data.