Contract Broker for Secure Ad-Hoc Personal Data Sharing

• US 20160099970A1
• Filed: 10/07/2014
• Published: 04/07/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 10/07/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Demandware, Inc. (Salesforce.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Grodzicki, Lawrence, Pritchard, Peter
• Granted Patent: US 9,407,665 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/02 involving a neutral party, e.g. certification authority, notary or trusted third party [TTP]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/20 Point-of-sale [POS] network systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/326 Payment applications installed on the mobile devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3265 characterised by personalisation for use
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/34 using cards, e.g. integrated circuit [IC] cards or magnetic cards
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/351 Virtual cards
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/385 using an alias or single-use codes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/409 Device specific authentication in transaction processing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2463/102 applying security measure for e-commerce data processing systems or methods, specially adapted for e-commerce G06Q30/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/084 using delegated authorisation, e.g. open authorisation [OAuth] protocol

Abstract

The present disclosure is directed to a system and method for sharing sensitive personal data such as personally identifying data and financial data of a user. In an aspect the exchange of data is facilitated by a trusted contract broker, which is in communication with a client device and an external application. The contract broker having access to needs and rules for each of the client device and the external application, and the contract broker brokering the secure exchange of data between the client device and the contract broker according to said needs and rules. In an aspect, an electronic representation of a subset of personal data needed to satisfy an ad-hoc rule of said external application is generated in a client device and delivered to the external application.

Claims

1. A method for machine-assisted execution of a transaction, comprising:

providing a brokering server to broker exchanges of personal data between a client device and an external application;

storing a record of active connections between said client device and said external application in said brokering server;

encoding a plurality of ad-hoc rules representing ad-hoc conditions required by said external application to complete said transaction in the form of needs metadata;

delivering said needs metadata to said client;

receiving personal data from said client corresponding to said needs metadata; and

returning said personal data corresponding to said needs metadata and representing said ad-hoc rules to said external application by way of said brokering server so that the personal data does not need to pass directly from said client to said external application.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising installing a library in both said client and in said external application to manage communications by each of said client and said external application with said brokering server.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising defining an external application state corresponding to said needs metadata, the needs metadata encoding said external application state in an ad-hoc fashion so as to represent an ad-hoc condition of the external application and ad-hoc needs of the external application.

4. The method of claim 1, said external application disposed in a point of sale device, and further comprising generating a machine-readable graphical output on a display of said client, the graphical output representing personal data required by said rules of said external application so as to complete said transaction at said point of sale device.

5. A method for conducting a transaction, comprising:

detecting, using a location detection system, the presence of a client device in or proximal to a point of sale containing an external application;

receiving, at a brokering server, from said external application, a plurality of metadata representing a state of said external application and representing a plurality of ad-hoc rules of said external application required by said external application to complete said transaction;

providing said metadata from said brokering server to said client device;

receiving from said client device a plurality of personal data corresponding to said metadata and said ad-hoc rules;

formatting said personal data according to a format specified in said metadata so as to generate a set of formatted personal data corresponding to said metadata and ad-hoc rules;

returning said formatted personal data from said brokering server to said external application so as to satisfy said ad-hoc rules and complete said transaction.

6. A method for securely sharing selected personal data, comprising:

presenting to a user a set of personal data stored in a personal communication device;

receiving at least one user input indicative of a subset of said personal data selected by said user for sharing with another party;

annotating the subset of personal data to show which selected personal data will be shared with said other party;

receiving further user input indicating that the user has completed selecting the subset of personal data to be shared; and

generating an electronic representation of said subset of personal data, said electronic representation encoding said selected personal data but not encoding other personal data that was not selected.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising transmitting said electronic representation of said selected personal data to a device other than said personal communication device.

8. The method of claim 6, generating said electronic representation comprising generating a bar code output on a display screen of said personal communication device encoding said selected personal data but not encoding other personal data that was not selected.

9. The method of claim 6, generating said electronic representation comprising generating a two-dimensional pixelated output on a display screen of said personal communication device encoding said selected personal data but not encoding other personal data that was not selected.

10. The method of claim 6, generating said electronic representation comprising generating a near field communication tag in said personal communication device encoding said selected personal data but not encoding other personal data that was not selected.

11. The method of claim 6, further comprising presenting a plurality of available formats for generating said electronic representation and receiving an input from a user indicative of a chosen one of said plurality of available formats for generating the electronic representation.

12. The method of claim 6, said generating of said electronic representation comprising generating an electronic representation that is machine readable but not human readable so as to secure the electronic representation from unaided detection by unauthorized persons.

13. The method of claim 6, further comprising displaying said electronic representation on a display screen of said personal communication device in a format suited for scanning by a corresponding scanning machine or reader.

14. The method of claim 6, further comprising transmission of said electronic representation from said personal communication device in a format suited for reception by a corresponding receiver located within a predetermined range of said personal communication device but not outside said range.

15. The method of claim 14, said range being less than ten (10) inches.

16. The method of claim 15, said range being less than two (2) inches.

17. A personal communication device, comprising:

a processor configured to execute computer-readable instructions;

an input/output module configured to receive user input signals from a user of said device representative of a choice of said user, and to deliver corresponding user input signals to said processor;

a storage unit coupled to said processor comprising at least one data store and including a store of personal data and a store of a selected subset of said personal data, said subset of personal data corresponding to said user input signals;

a display screen configured to receive display signals from said processor, said display screen further configured to illuminate segments of said display in accordance with the selected subset of personal data.

18. The personal communication device of claim 17, further comprising a communications transceiver that transmits electromagnetic signals in accordance with said selected subset of personal data.