Method of anonymising an interaction between devices

• US 8,812,372 B2
• Filed: 11/28/2008
• Issued: 08/19/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/28/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Privitar Limited
• Original Assignee: Really Virtual Company Limited
• Inventors: Taysom, John Graham, Cleevely, David
• Primary Examiner(s): Pats, Justin M
• Assistant Examiner(s): BYRD, UCHE SOWANDE
• Application Number:
  US12/745,313
• Publication Number:
  US 20110276404A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,090 Days
• Field of Search: 705 711- 742, 705/26.35, 705/26.42, 726/3, 726/4, 709/229
• US Class Current: 705/26.42
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0421 Anonymous communication, i.e. the party's identifiers are hidden from the other party or parties, e.g. using an anonymizer
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/102 Entity profiles

Abstract

A method is provided of anonymizing an interaction between a user entity and a service provider node wishing to provide a service to the user entity in dependence upon characteristics of the user entity determined or revealed as a result of the interaction, the method comprising: assigning the user entity to at least one set, each set comprising as members a plurality of user entities sharing a characteristic associated with that set; ensuring that the intersection of the at least one set comprises at least a predetermined minimum number of user entities; and providing to the service provider node information relating to the or each characteristic associated with the at least one set, the information being for use at the service provider node in providing a service to the user entity that is appropriate in view of the characteristics of the user entity but insufficient to identify the user entity.

Claims

1. A method of anonymising an interaction between a user entity comprising a computing device and a service provider node wishing to provide a service via a network to the user entity in dependence upon characteristics of the user entity determined or revealed as a result of the interaction, the method comprising:

assigning the user entity to a plurality of sets, each set of the plurality of sets comprising as members a plurality of user entities sharing a characteristic associated with that set;

ensuring that an intersection of the plurality of sets comprises at least a predetermined minimum number of user entities, wherein the predetermined minimum number of user entities is at least three; and

providing to the service provider node, as part of the interaction, information relating to the characteristic associated with each set of the plurality of sets, the information being for use at the service provider node in providing the service to the user entity, as part of the interaction, that is appropriate in view of the characteristics of the user entity but insufficient to identify the user entity, wherein the assigning, ensuring and providing steps are performed at an anonymiser disposed on a communication path between the user entity computing device and the service provider node, the anonymiser comprising a node or a cooperation of nodes, wherein anonymised service is provided to the user entity via the anonymiser as part of the interaction between the user entity and the service provider;

communicating, via an information broker node, with a clustering engine node to determine the plurality of sets to be assigned to the user entity, with the clustering engine node having knowledge of membership of the sets and the information broker node providing to the clustering engine node information sufficient to assign the user entity to the plurality of sets; and

wherein the clustering engine node acts on abstractions of identities the translation of which to real identities is not known by the clustering engine node.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1, comprising populating at least one of the sets with dummy user entities to ensure that the intersection of the sets comprises at least the predetermined minimum number of user entities.

3. A method as claimed in claim 1,

comprising presenting a warning at the user entity computing device if the intersection of the sets comprises a number of user entities within a predetermined range.

4. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the information broker node maintains information sufficient to identify the user entity without retaining knowledge of the characteristics of the user entity.

5. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the information broker node is distributed across a plurality of nodes.

6. A method as claimed in claim 1, comprising maintaining a record of user entity membership for each set, and updating the membership of the plurality of sets when the user entity is assigned to the plurality of sets.

7. A method as claimed in claim 1, comprising, on request of the user entity, allowing the user entity to be identified to another user entity in the plurality of sets.

8. A method as claimed in claim 1, comprising, on request of the user entity, allowing the user entity to be identified to the service provider node.

9. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the anonymised service is provided to the user entity in dependence upon the information.

10. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the anonymised service comprises sending data to the user entity.

11. A method as claimed in claim 10, wherein the data comprise media content.

12. A method as claimed in claim 10, wherein the data comprise advertising content.

13. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the predetermined minimum number is at least ten.

14. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the predetermined minimum number is at least 100.

15. A method as claimed in claim 1, comprising determining the predetermined number dynamically.

16. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the characteristics comprise at least one of the hardware capabilities of the device, software capabilities of the device, and location of the device.

17. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the user entity comprises a user of the device.

18. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the user entity comprises a user of a device.

19. A method as claimed in claim 17, wherein the characteristics comprise personal information relating to the user, such as an indication of at least one of the age, gender, home address, postcode, salary, likes, and dislikes of the user.

20. A method as claimed in claim 18, wherein the characteristics comprise personal information relating to the user, such as an indication of at least one of the age, gender, home address, postcode, salary, likes, and dislikes of the user.

21. A method according to claim 1, comprising determining the predetermined number dynamically and interactively with the user entity.

22. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the size of at least one of the sets to which a user belongs is variable.

23. A method as claimed in claim 1, comprising providing, to an authorised user and under controlled conditions, access to the identity of a user of the device.

24. An apparatus for anonymising an interaction between a user entity comprising a computing device and a service provider node wishing to provide a service via a network to the user entity in dependence upon characteristics of the user entity determined or revealed as a result of the interaction, the apparatus comprising:

an anonymiser device configured to assign the user entity to a plurality of sets, each set of the plurality of sets comprising as members a plurality of user entities sharing a characteristic associated with that set;

the anonymiser device is configured to ensure that an intersection of the plurality of sets comprises at least a predetermined minimum number of user entities, wherein the predetermined minimum number of user entities is at least three; and

the anonymiser device is configured to provide to the service provider node, as part of the interaction, information relating to the characteristic associated with each set of the plurality of sets, the information being for use at the service provider node in providing the service to the user entity as part of the interaction, that is appropriate in view of the characteristics of the user entity but insufficient to identify the user entity, wherein the anonymiser device is disposed on a communication path between the user entity and the service provider node, wherein anonymised service is provided to the user entity via the anonymiser device as part of the interaction between the user entity and the service provider;

an information broker node communicates with a clustering engine node to determine the plurality of sets to be assigned to the user entity, with the clustering engine node having knowledge of membership of the sets and the information broker node providing to the clustering engine node information sufficient to assign the user entity to the plurality of sets; and

wherein the clustering engine node acts on abstractions of identities the translation of which to real identities is not known by the clustering engine node.

25. An article of manufacture comprising:

non-transitory storage media comprising programming which causes processing circuitry to perform a method of anonymising an interaction between a user entity comprising a computing device and a service provider node wishing to provide a service via a network to the user entity in dependence upon characteristics of the user entity determined or revealed as a result of the interaction, the method comprising;

assigning the user entity to a plurality of sets, each set of the plurality of sets comprising as members a plurality of user entities sharing a characteristic associated with that set;

ensuring that an intersection of the plurality of sets comprises at least a predetermined minimum number of user entities, wherein the predetermined minimum number of user entities is at least three; and

providing to the service provider node, as part of the interaction, information relating to the characteristic associated with each set of the plurality of sets, the information being for use at the service provider node in providing the service to the user entity, as part of the interaction, that is appropriate in view of the characteristics of the user entity but insufficient to identify the user entity, wherein the assigning, ensuring and providing steps are performed at an anonymiser disposed on a communication path between the user entity computing device and the service provider node, the anonymiser comprising a node or a cooperation of nodes, wherein anonymised service is provided to the user entity via the anonymiser as part of the interaction between the user entity and the service provider;

communicating, via an information broker node, with a clustering engine node to determine the plurality of sets to be assigned to the user entity, with the clustering engine node having knowledge of membership of the sets and the information broker node providing to the clustering engine node information sufficient to assign the user entity to the plurality of sets; and

wherein the clustering engine node acts on abstractions of identities the translation of which to real identities is not known by the clustering engine node.

26. The article as claimed in claim 25, comprising populating at least one of the sets with dummy user entities to ensure that the intersection of the sets comprises at least the predetermined minimum number of user entities.

27. The article as claimed in claim 25, comprising presenting a warning at the user entity computing device if the intersection of the sets comprises a number of user entities within a predetermined range.

28. The article as claimed in claim 25, wherein the information broker node maintains information sufficient to identify the user entity without retaining knowledge of the characteristics of the user entity.

29. The article as claimed in claim 25, wherein the information broker node is distributed across a plurality of nodes.

30. The article as claimed in claim 25, comprising maintaining a record of user entity membership for each set, and updating the membership of the plurality of sets when the user entity is assigned to the plurality of sets.

31. The article as claimed in claim 25, comprising, on request of the user entity, allowing the user entity to be identified to another user entity in the plurality of sets.

32. The article as claimed in claim 25, comprising, on request of the user entity, allowing the user entity to be identified to the service provider node.

33. The article as claimed in claim 25, wherein the anonymised service is provided to the user entity in dependence upon the information.