Protecting private information in input understanding system

• US 9,934,406 B2
• Filed: 01/08/2015
• Issued: 04/03/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 01/08/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Khan, Omar Zia, Sarikaya, Ruhi
• Primary Examiner(s): BAYOU, YONAS A
• Application Number:
  US14/592,094
• Publication Number:
  US 20160203331A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,181 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6245 Protecting personal data, e.g. for financial or medical purposes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6254 by anonymising data, e.g. decorrelating personal data from the owner's identification

Abstract

Examples of the present disclosure include capturing an input at a local platform and transmitting the captured input to a service platform separate from the local platform. At least one partially evaluated policy generated by the service platform is received in response to the captured input. The local platform completes the partially evaluated policy by applying information private to the local platform to the partially evaluated policy. The local platform determines a final action for responding to the captured input based on completing the partially evaluated policy.

Claims

1. A computer system comprising:

at least one processing unit; and

at least one memory storing computer executable instructions that, when executed by the at least one processing unit, cause the system to perform a method comprising;

capturing an input by the computer system;

analyzing, by the computer system, the input to determine that external information is needed to generate a policy from the input;

transmitting, from the computer system to a service platform, the input to obtain a partially evaluated policy based on external information related to the input, wherein private information is needed to complete the partially evaluated policy;

receiving, from the service platform at the computer system, at least one partially evaluated policy generated in response to the input;

completing, by the computer system, the partially evaluated policy by applying to the partially evaluated policy, private information stored on the computer system; and

determining, by the computer system, a final action for responding to the input based on the completing.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein completing the partially evaluated policy further comprises inputting the information private to the computer system into the partially evaluated policy to generate a completely evaluated policy.

3. The system according to claim 2, wherein inputting the information private to the computer system further comprises plugging values into the partially evaluated policy for missing features associated with the private information to generate a completely evaluated policy.

4. The system according to claim 1, wherein the partially evaluated policy includes conditional actions based on the information private to the computer system.

5. The system according to claim 1, wherein the partially evaluated policy identifies features that need to be populated by the computer system to generate a completely evaluated policy.

6. The system according to claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

identifying non-sensitive context data associated with the captured input; and

transmitting the non-sensitive context data to the service platform with the captured input for generation of the partially evaluated policy.

7. The system according to claim 1, wherein the method further comprises reporting the final action taken by the computer system to the service platform.

8. The system according to claim 1, wherein the computer executable instructions are included in an application or service running on a processing device.

9. The system according to claim 1, wherein the determining the final action comprises comparing completed policies and selecting the final action based on the comparison.

10. A computer-implemented method comprising:

capturing an input at a local platform;

analyzing, by the local platform, the input to determine that external information is necessary to generate a policy from the input;

transmitting the captured input to a service platform separate from the local platform to obtain a partially evaluated policy based on external information related to the input;

receiving, from the service platform, at least one partially evaluated policy generated in response to the captured input, wherein private information is needed to complete the at least one partially evaluated policy;

completing, by the local platform, the partially evaluated policy by applying private information stored on the local platform to the partially evaluated policy; and

determining, by the local platform, a final action for responding to the captured input based on the completed policy.

11. The computer-implemented method according to claim 10, wherein completing the partially evaluated policy further comprises inputting the private information to the local platform into the partially evaluated policy to generate a completely evaluated policy.

12. The computer-implemented method according to claim 11, wherein the inputting the private information comprises plugging values into the partially evaluated policy for missing features associated with the private information to generate a completely evaluated policy.

13. The computer-implemented method according to claim 10, wherein the partially evaluated policy includes conditional actions based on the information private to the local platform input.

14. The computer-implemented method according to claim 10, wherein the partially evaluated policy identifies features that need to be populated by the local platform to generate a completely evaluated policy.

15. The computer-implemented method according to claim 10, further comprising:

identifying non-sensitive context data associated with the captured input; and

transmitting the non-sensitive context data to the service platform with the captured input for generation of the partially evaluated policy.

16. The computer-implemented method according to claim 10, further comprising reporting the final action taken by the local platform to the service platform.

17. The computer-implemented method according to claim 10, wherein determining the final action comprises comparing completed policies and selecting the final action based on the comparison.

18. A computer-readable storage device containing instructions, that when executed on at least one processor, causing the at least one processor to execute a method comprising:

receiving an input from a local platform at a service platform, wherein the service platform is separate from that local platform;

generating, at a service platform separate from the local platform, at least one partially evaluated policy for responding to the received input when the service platform lacks information needed to make a final decision as to how to respond to the received input, wherein the generating applies knowledge data to the received input to generate the partially evaluated policy; and

transmitting the partially evaluated policy to the local platform for further evaluation, wherein private information is needed to complete the partially evaluated policy.

19. The computer-readable storage device according to claim 18, wherein generating the partially evaluated policy further comprises filling in information other than private information maintained by the local platform, wherein the information comprises parameters associated with the private information based on data available to the service platform including the knowledge data.

20. The computer-readable storage device according to claim 18, wherein generating at least one partially evaluated policy comprises generating a plurality of partially evaluated policies that are conditional based the information needed to make the final decision maintained by the local platform, and wherein transmitting the partially evaluated policy comprises transmitting the plurality of partially evaluated policies to the local platform.