USE OF PROXY SERVERS AND PSEUDONYMOUS TRANSACTIONS TO MAINTAIN INDIVIDUAL'S PRIVACY IN THE COMPETITIVE BUSINESS OF MAINTAINING PERSONAL HISTORY DATABASES

• US 20110072142A1
• Filed: 11/29/2010
• Published: 03/24/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/18/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Bhupinder Madan, Frederick S.M. Herz, Matthew Radin
• Original Assignee: Bhupinder Madan, Frederick S.M. Herz, Matthew Radin
• Inventors: Herz, Frederick S.M., Radin, Matthew, Madan, Bhupinder
• Granted Patent: US 8,224,979 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/229
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6254 by anonymising data, e.g. decorrelating personal data from the owner's identification

Abstract

A system is provided that preserves data privacy for the Individual—I and Private Data Owner (PDO) while granting data access to the User—U and Accessor who need such data to perform their usual and customary business functions. The method and system completely control the User'"'"'s access to the Private Data Owner'"'"'s Private Data by replacing Identifying Information for the User—U, Individual—I, Accessor and PDO with pseudonyms. This assures the overall privacy of individuals, throughout the course of collecting, storing, accessing, analyzing and sharing detailed private records among different organizations engaged in providing and/or consuming services and/or products. Access Control Rule Sets (“ACRS”) consist of instructions which prescribe the terms and conditions for permitting Users to access the PDO'"'"'s Pseudonymized and Actual Private data in accordance with the rules governing their authorization to access such data.

Claims

1. A method for exchange of pseudonymous personal information between two or more data storage servers or within a data storage server in which the identities of persons, associated servers and/or associated organizations with which the personal information resides is pseudonymous, comprising:

assigning respective unique identifications (UIDs) to persons having private data for storage;

registering the persons with a pseudonymous proxy server as at least one of a plurality of respective user types based on the respective person'"'"'s relationship to the stored private data with associated pseudonyms for each user and sets of rules that control access to the respective person'"'"'s stored private data and pseudonyms for the respective person'"'"'s stored private data by persons registered with the pseudonymous proxy server based at least on user type;

providing service provider identifiers to each person that identifies the respective persons to a service provider;

transmitting a message from one of the persons to the service provider through the pseudonymous proxy server, wherein the pseudonymous proxy server receives the message and, based on the set of rules that control said one person'"'"'s access to the stored private data of a person registered with the pseudonymous proxy server, validates a relationship between said one person and the service provider and transmits the message to the service provider if the relationship between said one person and the service provider is validated; and

said pseudonymous proxy server authorizing said one person to view the stored private data of said person or pseudonyms for said private data of said person based on said set of rules that control said one person'"'"'s access to said stored private data of said person and said pseudonyms for said private data of said person.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the pseudonymous proxy server controls unique identifications (UIDs) and sets of rules for respective persons among multiple servers in a hub and spoke network configuration.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the pseudonymous proxy server controls unique identifications (UIDs) and sets of rules for respective persons among multiple servers in a network tree configuration.

4. The method of claim 1, comprising the person encrypting said pseudonym.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the pseudonymous private data for a person registered with the pseudonymous proxy server is the person'"'"'s medical records and said two or more data storage servers are controlled by respective medical service providers, where said person and said respective medical service providers are permitted access to said person'"'"'s medical records based on said set of rules, and wherein a transfer of said patient'"'"'s medical records from one medical service provider to another medical service provider includes the replacing of the another medical service provider'"'"'s name with a pseudonym, pseudonymizing the person'"'"'s medical records in accordance with the another medical service provider'"'"'s access rights, and providing the access rights to the another medical service provider based on authorization to the person'"'"'s medical records as granted by the person.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising the pseudonymous proxy server validating a relationship between said one person and the owner of the stored private data and transmitting the message to the service provider if the relationship between said one person and the owner of the stored private data is validated.