Method and system for applying data retention policies in a computing platform

• US 9,251,371 B2
• Filed: 07/07/2015
• Issued: 02/02/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 07/07/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Twilio, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Twilio, Inc.
• Inventors: Ballai, Adam, Milliron, Timothy S.
• Primary Examiner(s): McNally, Michael S
• Application Number:
  US14/793,435
• Publication Number:
  US 20160004882A1
• Time in Patent Office: 210 Days
• Field of Search: 726/1
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/113 Details of archiving lifecycle management in storage systems G06F3/0649; backup systems G06F11/1446
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/125 characterised by the use of retention policies retention policies for HSM systems G06F16/185
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6245 Protecting personal data, e.g. for financial or medical purposes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/04 for providing a confidential data exchange among entities communicating through data packet networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/105 Multiple levels of security

Abstract

Systems and methods for a multitenant computing platform. Original data is generated through operation of a computing platform system on behalf of an account of the computing platform system, and the original data is moderated according to a data retention policy set for the account. The moderated data is stored at the computing platform system. The computing platform system moderates the generated data by securing sensitive information of the generated data from access by the computing platform system, and providing operational information from the generated data. The operational information is accessible by the computing platform system during performance of system operations.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

at a multitenant computing platform system;

setting a data retention policy of an account at the computing platform system;

generating data through operation of the computing platform system on behalf of the account;

moderating the generated data of the account according to the data retention policy of the account; and

storing the moderated data,

wherein the computing platform system moderates the generated data by;

securing sensitive information of the generated data from access by the computing platform system, and

providing operational information from the generated data, the operational information being accessible by the computing platform system during performance of system operations.

2. A method, comprising:

at a multitenant computing platform system;

moderating original data generated through operation of the computing platform system on behalf of an account of the computing platform system, the moderating being performed according to a data retention policy set for the account; and

storing the moderated data at the computing platform system,

wherein the computing platform system moderates the generated data by;

securing sensitive information of the generated data from access by the computing platform system, and

providing operational information from the generated data, the operational information being accessible by the computing platform system during performance of system operations.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the data retention policy defines actions performed by the computing platform system on the data to secure the sensitive information prior to storing the data in a data warehouse of the computing platform system, and wherein moderating data comprises performing the actions defined by the data retention policy.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the data includes at least one of data logs, API request records, API response records, captured packets, form data input, user generated data, generated media, and obtained media.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein actions include at least one of data redaction, data censoring, data classifying, data bucketing, data aggregating, data encryption, and partial deletion.

6. The method of claim 5,

wherein data redaction comprises automatically detecting and removing at least one of a credit card number, social security number, account number, and address from the data,

wherein data classifying comprises replacing data with a generalized representation of the data,

wherein data aggregating comprises replacing metrics of data with an aggregated representation of the metrics of data,

wherein data encryption comprises determining an encryption callback reference for the data, transmitting the data to an external system of the encryption callback reference, and replacing the data with encrypted data provided by the external system of the encryption callback reference, wherein the account is an account for the external system.

7. The method of claim 2,

wherein the computing platform system secures the sensitive information from access by the computing platform system by performing at least one of removing, censoring and encrypting of the sensitive information of the generated data,

wherein the computing platform system provides the operational information from the generated data by at least one of preserving operational information from the generated data and generating operation information from the generated data,

wherein the encrypting is performed by using an external system associated with the account, and the encrypted sensitive information is secured from access by the computing platform system.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the encryption allows only an account holder of the account to access the encrypted sensitive information.

9. The method of claim 2, wherein system operations include at least one of usage analytics, business intelligence operations, infrastructure scaling operations, metering account usage, billing for account usage, fraud detection, error detection, general event pattern detection, platform administration operations, allocating resources, deallocating resources, cluster management operations, and auditing operations.

10. The method of claim 2, wherein system operations include at least one of metering account usage, and billing for account usage.

11. The method of claim 2, further comprising, at the computing platform system, performing at least one system operation by using the operational information.

12. The method of claim 2, further comprising, at the computing platform system, performing at least one system operation by using the stored moderated data.

13. The method of claim 2, wherein the moderated data is stored at a data warehouse system, and the method further comprises, at the computing platform system, accessing the moderated data stored at the data warehouse system and performing at least one system operation by using the accessed moderated data.

14. The method of claim 2, wherein the computing platform system receives the data retention policy in a data retention policy message provided by an external system, and responsive to the data retention policy message, the computing platform system sets the data retention policy at the system in association with an account identifier specified by the data retention policy message, the account identifier being an account identifier of the account.

15. The method of claim 2, wherein the computing platform system receives the data retention policy via at least one of:

a data retention policy API (Application Program Interface);

an administrator control panel user interface provided by the computing platform system;

a configuration file provided by an external account holder system; and

directives during operation of the computing platform system.

16. The method of claim 2, wherein the data retention policy is received from an external account holder system, and the data retention policy is received with a request to apply the data retention policy to one or more specified data elements.

17. The method of claim 2, wherein the computing platform system generates the data responsive to a computing request provided by an external system and received by the computing platform system via a computing service API (Application Program Interface).

18. The method of claim 2, wherein the computing platform system is a multi-tenant telephony communication platform system.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the communication platform system selectively changes the data retention policy for at least a portion of a communication session.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the data is generated responsive to execution of a communication on the communication platform system.