Patent Application
20250078076
The present disclosure relates to the field of online user privacy and, in particular, to preserving the privacy of user profiles in distributing content over decentralized peer-to-peer networks.
A technological problem that arises with online or internet communications or transactions, such as involved in online content consumption, is that a “digital footprint” or a “digital shadow” of online activities may be left as a user device, such as via a browser or an application, visits a website, requests content, and otherwise performs communications on the Internet. Unlike in a brick-and-mortar environment, online transactions may reveal aspects of user's data and may reveal portions of a user profile, such as a content consumption history and payment information.
Online privacy is a type of personal privacy concerning the storing, re-purposing, provision to third-parties, and displaying of information via the Internet. Maintaining online privacy may entail protection of either personally identifiable information (PII) or non-PII information, such as a site visitor's behavior on a website provided by a server or group of servers. PII generally refers to any information that can be used to identify an individual.
Online business entities typically attempt to collect as much data as possible from online visitors. Repeated visits by a browser to a server that provides digital content or provides another type of web-based service may leave behind data sufficient to piece together a pattern of data that reveals aspects of a user's profile, resulting in a loss of data privacy. In a peer-to-peer (P2P) framework, or decentralized network provider/distributor environment, it may be unclear from whose server on the Internet the user's device is requesting services or interacting with. This may leave a user's device subject to attacks and exploits from unscrupulous Internet actors. Such online privacy concerns may also deter Internet activity, and may result in a failure to access resources, such as needed or requested goods or services, including digital content.
According to one approach to protecting online privacy, proxies are added to handle license acquisition for digital content, a Virtual Private Network (VPN) may be used to access online resources, or other encryption approaches (“onion routing”) may be used to hide user's media access. However, the user's device may be linked to transactions conducted, to media content consumed, or to visits to a server in the past, which may then be used to classify the user, to create a profile for the user, to send spam, and/or to learn the user's identity. Also, upon purchase of media content, the provider may, as part of the payment and/or billing process, link the identity of the user to the transaction. For example, the credit card, checking account number, or other bank information may be used to learn the user's data.
According to an embodiment, online transaction data that links a user profile to a service provided by a network server is not revealed or is otherwise obscured. Such transaction data is effectively kept private so that no single participant in the transaction may be able to link a particular transaction to prior transactions using a payment or transaction history. A first device (sometimes referred to as “the UD” or user device but may be any device that provides such functions) obtains a temporary ID from a second device, which may be a server of an Identification Service (“IS”) entity or node, or may be any other device that performs such functions. The temporary ID is used for a transaction with a third device, which may be a server of a content distributor (“CD”), such as an online merchant or content provider, for example, but may be any device that performs such functions. In an embodiment, a new temporary ID may be obtained from the IS and may be used for only one transaction. The first device may transmit to the third device a cryptographically encrypted message containing payment information that is not decipherable by the third device. In an example, the cryptographically encrypted message may be a message encrypted with a public key of a fourth device, which may be a server of a Payment Service (“PS”), such as a bank or credit card company or another entity that provides similar functions.
According to an embodiment, the third device transmits the cryptographically encrypted message (or one or more portions thereof) to the fourth device. The fourth device (e.g., the PS) is able to decrypt the payment information, pay for the transaction, and transmit an invoice to the first device. Or, payment by the fourth device to the third device may occur after the fourth device receives indication of payment from the first device. The first device transmits payment to the fourth device, which may then transmit payment to the third device. The third device thereafter, or before receiving an indication of payment from the fourth device, may send the content data or provide another service to the first device.
This embodiment may provide a mechanism for secure payment to the third device, and provide evidence that can be used in billing and for tracing payment for a transaction, as may be required by law, while preserving user anonymity. There may be a need or legal requirement to implement interception by law enforcement agencies or tax or other authorities to trace financial transactions. Authorities often require traceability of financial transactions to prevent money laundering and other criminal transactions. This is a critical issue as governments have started to prevent operations of technologies that have been used in money laundering. This is the often at odds with technology for increased online confidentiality of financial transactions. For example, the European Union (EU) has a directive for payment services (PSD2) but it does not fully address online user confidentiality. In fact, the PSD2 directive has been understood as conflicting with the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which provides for online privacy of users. According to an aspect of the disclosure such concerns and others may be addressed.
With the disclosed techniques, no specific form of payment is necessarily required between the UD and the CD. According to an embodiment, user profile data and the user's identity may be hidden from the CD, and the type of purchased or requested content items may be hidden from the PS. The IS may generate trusted pseudonyms that are different in each transaction, which helps to prevent the CD from profiling the user and linking together multiple purchases from the same user device. It will be appreciated that the user may use multiple devices, which may all sometimes be referred to as a “user device.”
Described are a method, system, apparatus, non-transitory computer-readable medium, means for performing the method for providing a billing privacy preserving process. Such a method may include: receiving, by a UD associated with user information, a temporary user ID from an IS initiating, by the UD, a transaction with a CD using the temporary user ID. The UD may receive data from the CD, wherein the data is sent by the CD in response to receiving a first indication of payment for the transaction from a PS. In this method, the first indication of payment for the transaction to the CD was to have been transmitted by the PS device in response to: the PS device receiving the temporary user ID and linking the temporary user ID to the user information; and the PS receiving a second indication of payment based on the user information.
Such a method may also include receiving, by the UD, payment information for the transaction from the PS device based on the user information being linked, by the PS device, to the temporary user ID.
In addition, according to this method may also include receiving, by the UD, user payment information signed by the IS, and then encoding, by the UD using a public key of the PS, the signed user payment information. The UD may transmit to the CD the signed user payment information as encoded by the UD, such that the temporary user ID is linked, by the PS device, to the temporary user ID based on the signed user payment information as encoded by the UD that is received by the PS device from the CD
In such a method, the user payment information received by the UD is signed using a private key of the IS By way of further example, the user payment information, which may be signed by the IS, is encoded by the UD using a public key of the PS.
According to a further aspect of the disclosure, the method may include receiving, by a UD from an IS, a temporary user ID that is signed by the IS and user payment information that is signed by the IS. The UD, using a public key of a PS, may encrypt the user payment information signed by the IS-. Then the UD may initiate a transaction with a CD using the temporary user ID. The UD may at this time, or following receipt of indication of payment by the CD receive the requested data from the CD, wherein the requested data is sent by the merchant device in response to receiving a first indication of payment for the transaction from a PS. According to this approach, the first indication of payment for the transaction may be transmitted by the PS to the CD in response to: the PS receiving the temporary user ID and linking the temporary user ID to the user information based on the user payment information signed by the IS as encrypted by the UD; and the PS receiving a second indication of payment based on the user information.
In such a method, as part of the initiating of the transaction with the merchant device, the UD may transmit to the CD the user payment information signed by the IS, and which is further encrypted by the UD.
According to such a method, the UD may receive, from the IS, a user public key signed by the IS. The UD may initiate the transaction to the CD by transmitting the user public key signed by the IS. The UD may receive, as the requested data, a media content item encoded by the user public key and/or a media content item encoded by the user public key.
Such an approach may provide technological solutions to technological problems highlighted by online transactions: the identity, or aspects of the identity, of a user may be kept confidential from a vendor even in repeated visits of the user to the vendor.
The above-described features and other features of the present disclosure, its nature and various advantages will be more apparent upon consideration of the following detailed description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, and in which:
It will be appreciated that for simplicity and clarity of illustration, where considered appropriate, reference numerals may be repeated among the figures to indicate corresponding or analogous elements. In addition, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the embodiments described herein. However, it will be understood that the embodiments and examples described herein may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known methods, procedures and components, including software, firmware and hardware components, have not been described in detail so as not to obscure the embodiments described herein. Also, the description is not to be considered as limiting the scope of the embodiments described herein.
Aspects of an illustrative embodiment of the disclosure will now be described with reference to the example shown in
In some embodiments, the UD 101 may initiate a process for a privacy-preserving transaction with the CD 105 by first contacting the IS 103. Thus, in a first communication 1, UD 101 sends a request to a server of Identification Service (or IS) 103 to request creation of a temporary ID (e.g., a Signed One-Time Identifier (SOTI)) that is used to create a trusted pseudonym identity for the UD 101. The first communication 1 may also include payment information (sometimes hereinafter described as an “invoice address”) for the UD 101. The payment information may be bank account information, credit card information, and/or other payment account information for the user, or may be a single-purpose user account number provided by the PS and sufficient for the PS to associate the user with an actual bank account/debit card/credit card number, or the like.
The IS 103 may verify the UD 101 profile data or an identity of a person associated with the UD 101, for example, using a username and password, two-stage identification, or other means. Once verified, the IS 103 sends a second communication 2 to the UD 101, which returns the SOTI that is digitally signed by the IS 103. The IS 103 may also transmit, in this example to the UD 101, payment information that is digitally signed by the IS 103. The IS 103 may provide the temporary ID to UD 101 digitally signed using a digital signature of the IS 103. This digitally signed temporary ID from a trusted IS 103 helps to provide assurance to the CD 105 that the temporary ID of the UD 101 is legitimate and that it has not been modified. The digital signature of the IS 103 may, for example, be created using a private key of the IS 103. Using a known public key of the IS 103, the temporary user ID may then be ascertained by recipients of the digitally signed temporary user ID. In an embodiment, instead or in addition, the IS 103 may transmit the payment information and the SOTI to the PS 107.
To initiate a transaction, the UD 101 sends a communication 3 to the CD 105. Example transactions may include the purchase of a product, a request for media content from the CD 105, subscribing for a service or for media content or other data, requesting information, downloading or accessing software (including software as service), requesting access to a web resource, or to other data, requesting or obtaining a license for digital rights, and/or requesting or initiating some other action by a server associated with the CD 105. In communication 3, the UD 101 initiates a transaction (e.g., to purchase of a product) by sending a request including the SOTI to the server of CD 105. In an example, the UD 101 may use cryptological means, such as the public key of the PS, to encrypt the payment information. For example, the UD 101 may encrypt, using a public key of the PS 107, the payment information that had been digitally signed with the private key of the IS 103. The UD 101 may then transmit the encrypted payment information to the CD 105 as part of, or in addition, to communication 3.
Generally, messages between the actors/nodes may use a secure channel, which may be, for example, a Transport Layer Security (TLS) connection. According to an aspect of the disclosure, a program or application residing on or at the UD 101 may automatically handle the commencing of such a process with the IS server, and then initiate the transaction with the CD 105 in a manner that is transparent to the UD 101. The UD and other nodes may use software running in an isolated Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) for communication, encryption, decryption, and/or other processes of the transaction. According to an embodiment, the CD 105 need not be informed and may never learn the real identity of the UD 101. The CD 105 and/or other nodes may use trusted public keys from a trusted PKI certificate authority. CD 105 may be a device of a peer or other user that is not in the business of providing goods, services or other types of products, content or other data, to consumers.
Referring further to the embodiment of
Referring back to
If verification is successful, the PS 107 may transfer money, funds, or other form of compensation to the CD 105 via communication 5. In an embodiment, the funds need not be actually transferred to the CD 105 at this time, but CD 105 may receive some other indication from PS 107 that payment has been authorized, or that payment will take place at some point in the future. For example, PS 107 may be a credit card company or a bank issuing a notification to CD 105 that the credit card transaction has been authorized, that the funds are present in the bank account of the UD 101 and will be debited, that a wire transfer (or Zelle, Venmo, Paypal, etc. payment) has been acknowledged, approved, verified, processed, transacted or completed, that a check has been written, or the like. According to an embodiment, the PS 107 is not provided with information regarding what the UD 101 has bought or what the target of the transaction is. In an embodiment, an assurance by PS 107 to CD 105 that payment will take place in the future may be an indication of payment that is sufficient for CD 105 to furnish the data or other service to the UD 101. The payment or other indication of payment by the PS 107 to the CD 105 may be provided before or after the PS 107 receives payment or indication of payment from the UD 101 or substantially contemporaneously with the PS 107 receiving payment or indication of payment from the UD 101.
In communication 6, the CD 105 transmits content data or other data that was a target of the transaction to the UD 101, or transmits a report confirming that the transaction has been completed or is soon to be completed, the product has been shipped, processed, ordered, flagged for processing, etc., or transmits a confirmation that the content data or other data will be transmitted, downloaded, processed, ordered or flagged for transmission, or that the UD 101 is subscribed or enrolled, accepted, or otherwise confirming completion of the transaction.
In a digital rights management (DRM) use case, the CD 105 may request content data from the content supplier (CS) 106 (shown in
In such a case involving a CS 106, the CD 105 may request payment from the PS 107 following the receipt of the data from CS 106 or before the receipt of the data from CS 106. The PS 107 may use the payment information digitally signed by the IS 103, as encrypted by the UD 101 using cryptographic credentials known to the PS 107, and may use the temporary ID (the SOTI) of the UD 101 digitally signed by the IS 103, to provide payment the CD 105. The CD 105 may also transmit the amount to be paid, and may also transmit the payment information for the CD 105, such as payee checking account number, bank account information, Venmo/Zelle/Paypal information or the like, In an embodiment, the CD 105 may also transmit identifying information regarding the transaction, such as the date/time at which the transaction was requested by the UD 101 and/or the date/time at which the product/content (transaction target data) was delivered to the UD 101 or is to be delivered to the UD 101. According to an embodiment, the CD 105 may also notify the PS 107 of a description of the type of the transaction target data, such as the name/title/quantity of the transaction target data, and the like. In an embodiment, the PS 107 is not informed of the actual product, content data, or other service rendered by the server of the CD 105 that is the target of the transaction.
Upon receipt of the payment information in encrypted form, the PS 107 may decrypt the payment information and may then provide or authorize payment to the CD. The digital signature of the IS 103 on the temporary user ID may provide some assurance to the PS 107 that the UD 101 is an actual, verified user. The IS 103 may be a company whose reputation serves to assure that it has authenticated the UD 101 to which it provides a temporary ID and/or that it has received adequate payment/account information for payment from the PS 107 for the UD 101 or user profiled associated therewith. Similarly, the digital signature of the IS 103 on the payment information of the UD 101 may provide some assurance to the PS 107 that the transaction was initiated at the request of the UD 101, and thus may provide a measure of protection against an unscrupulous CD 105.
The payment information for the UD 101 allows the PS 107 to correlate the transaction with an actual identity of the UD 101. This may be of use for completion of the payment for the transaction to the CD 105 and for receiving payment by the PS 107 from the UD 101, for generating an invoice to the UD 101 so the UD 101 may document the transaction, and also may facilitate the PS 107 maintaining a record of the payment for the transaction for legal/law enforcement purposes. For example, the UD 101 may transmit the UD credit/debit card number and other credit/debit card information associated with UD 101, the UD checking account/bank account number information, Venmo/Zelle/Paypal information associated with UD 101, or the other methods and means herein discussed, or the like, or the UD may transmit someone else's payment information to be used for the transaction. The IS 103 may digitally sign the payment information and send it back to the UD 101.
According to an embodiment, the UD 101 may transmit the payment information as digitally signed by the IS 103, either encrypted or unencrypted, directly to the PS 107. In an embodiment the UD 101 may transmit an amount of the payment to be made, a date/time of the transaction, and the UD 101 may specify payee information such as, but not limited to, the account, address and/or other information of the CD who is to receive payment from the PS 107. Or, the IS 103 may transmit the payment information to PS 107, in which case, the digital signature of the IS 103 may or may not be provided for the payment information and, in which case, the payment information may be unencrypted.
In communication 7, the PS 107 may send an invoice to the UD 101 that it generates based on the payment information that PS 107 had received to find account information for the user associated with the UD 101. The PS 107 may have decrypted the payment information using the private key of the PS 107. In an embodiment, UD 101 may transmit the payment information to PS 107, and may also transmit to PS 107 the temporary user ID (SOTI) obtained from the IS 103. According to an embodiment, the payment information may be separately transmitted from the UD 101 to the PS 107, or from the IS 103 to the PS 107. According to an embodiment, the invoicing address information is encrypted if transmitted directly from the UD 101 to the PS 107, or from the IS 103 to the PS 107.
In communication 8, the UD 101 transfers money, funds, or other form of payment to the PS 107 according to the invoice. It will be understood that communications 7 and 8 may be transmitted prior to, or contemporaneously with, communication 5 providing payment or indication of payment to CD 105.
While described as payment, one or more of the payments in communications 5 and 8 may be a transmission authorizing, instructing and/or requesting payment, charging a credit or debit card, and/or may be a transmission authorizing, instructing and/or requesting a deduction of funds from an account of UD 101 with PS 107 or with another institution or individual, may be an indication of an instruction authorizing and/or requesting a wire transfer or other type of transfer of funds, moving a balance between account, writing a cheque, making a deposit, and/or may be a confirmation of the initiation, execution or completion of any of the foregoing. For example, communication 5 may comprise an assurance by the PS 107 to CD 105 that communication 7 invoicing UD 101 has been transmitted, that confirmation that communication 7 invoicing UD 101 has been received by UD 101, that communication 8 evidencing payment by UD 101 has been transmitted by UD 101, that communication 8 evidencing payment by UD 101 has been received by PS 107, or that an intermediary has received payment from UD 101 or has made payment to PS 107.
In step 1 of
UD 400 may comprise, or may be communicatively connected to structures shown in
Each user equipment device may receive content and data via input/output (I/O) path 402 that may comprise I/O circuitry (e.g., network card, or wireless transceiver). I/O path 402 of user equipment 400 may provide content (e.g., broadcast programming, on-demand programming, Internet content, content available over a local area network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN), and/or other content) and data to control circuitry 404, which may comprise processing circuitry 406 and storage 408. Control circuitry 404 of user equipment 400 may comprise processing circuitry 406, and may be used to send and receive commands, requests, and other suitable data using I/O path 402, which may comprise I/O circuitry. I/O path 402 may connect control circuitry 404 (and specifically processing circuitry 406) to one or more communications paths (described below). I/O functions may be provided by one or more of these communications paths, but are shown as a single path in
Control circuitry 404 may be based on any suitable control circuitry such as processing circuitry 406. As referred to herein, control circuitry should be understood to mean circuitry based on one or more microprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors, programmable logic devices, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), etc., and may include a multi-core processor (e.g., dual-core, quad-core, hexa-core, or any suitable number of cores) or supercomputer. In some embodiments, control circuitry may be distributed across multiple separate processors or processing units, for example, multiple of the same type of processing units (e.g., two Intel Core i9 processors) or multiple different processors (e.g., an Intel Core i7 processor and an Intel Core i9 processor). In some embodiments, control circuitry 404 executes instructions for stored in memory (e.g., storage 408). Specifically, control circuitry 404 may be instructed by an application to perform the functions discussed herein. In some implementations, processing or actions performed by control circuitry 404 may be based on instructions received from an application associated with one or more of the content providers 101 and/or 111.
In client/server-based embodiments, control circuitry 404 may include communications circuitry suitable for communicating with a server or other networks or servers, including with the content providers 101 and/or 111, and/or with devices of other actors shown in
In some embodiments, such an application may be a client/server application where only the client application resides on device 400 (e.g., device 104), and a server application resides on an external server (e.g., server 101 and/or server 111). In a cloud computing environment, various types of computing services for performing communication and transactions, record keeping, billing, and the like on the internet or informational databases, providing applications associated with one or more of the providing storage (e.g., for a database) or parsing data (e.g., using machine learning algorithms described above and below) are provided by a collection of network-accessible computing and storage resources. Device 400 may be a cloud client or cloud server that relies on the cloud computing capabilities to determine whether processing (e.g., at least a portion of virtual background processing and/or at least a portion of other processing tasks) should be offloaded from the mobile device, and facilitate such offloading.
Communications circuitry may include a cable modem, an integrated services digital network (ISDN) modem, a digital subscriber line (DSL) modem, Wi-Fi or wired connection, a telephone modem, Ethernet card, or a wireless modem for communications with other equipment, or any other suitable communications circuitry.
Memory may be an electronic storage device provided as storage 408 that is part of control circuitry 404. As referred to herein, the phrase “electronic storage device” or “storage device” should be understood to mean any device for storing electronic data, computer software, or firmware, such as random-access memory, read-only memory, hard drives, optical drives, digital video disc (DVD) recorders, compact disc (CD) recorders, BLU-RAY disc (BD) recorders, BLU-RAY 3D disc recorders, digital video recorders (DVR, sometimes called a personal video recorder, or PVR), solid state devices, quantum storage devices, gaming consoles, gaming media, or any other suitable fixed or removable storage devices, and/or any combination of the same. Storage 408 may be used to store various types of content described herein as well as application associated with one or more of the content providers 101 and/or 111 data described above. Nonvolatile memory may also be used (e.g., to launch a boot-up routine and other instructions). Cloud-based storage, described in relation to
Control circuitry 404 may include video generating circuitry and tuning circuitry, such as one or more analog tuners, one or more MPEG-2 decoders or other digital decoding circuitry, high-definition tuners, or any other suitable tuning or video circuits or combinations of such circuits. Encoding circuitry (e.g., for converting over-the-air, analog, or digital signals to MPEG signals for storage) may also be provided. Control circuitry 404 may also include scaler circuitry for upconverting and down converting content into the preferred output format of user equipment 400. Control circuitry 404 may also include digital-to-analog converter circuitry and analog-to-digital converter circuitry for converting between digital and analog signals. The tuning and encoding circuitry may be used by user equipment device 400 to receive and to display, to play, or to record content. The circuitry described herein, including for example, the tuning, video generating, encoding, decoding, encrypting, decrypting, scaler, and analog/digital circuitry, may be implemented using software running on one or more general purpose or specialized processors. Multiple tuners may be provided to handle simultaneous tuning functions (e.g., watch and record functions, picture-in-picture (PIP) functions, multiple-tuner recording, etc.). If storage 408 is provided as a separate device from user equipment device 400, the tuning and encoding circuitry (including multiple tuners) may be associated with storage 408.
Control circuitry 404 may receive instruction from a user by way of user input interface 410. UD 101 may include or be connected to input interface 410, which may be any suitable user interface, such as a remote control, mouse, trackball, keypad, keyboard, touch screen, touchpad, stylus input, joystick, voice recognition interface, or other user input interfaces. Display 412 may be provided as a stand-alone device or integrated with other elements of each one of user equipment device 400 and user equipment device 401. For example, display 412 may be a touchscreen or touch-sensitive display. In such circumstances, user input interface 410 may be integrated with or combined with display 412. In some embodiments, user input interface 410 includes a remote-control device having one or more microphones, buttons, keypads, any other components configured to receive user input or combinations thereof. For example, user input interface 410 may include a handheld remote-control device having an alphanumeric keypad and option buttons. In a further example, user input interface 410 may include a handheld remote-control device having a microphone and control circuitry configured to receive and identify voice commands and transmit information to set-top box 715.
Audio output equipment 414 may be integrated with or combined with display 412. Display 412 may be one or more of a monitor, a television, a liquid crystal display (LCD) for a mobile device, amorphous silicon display, low-temperature polysilicon display, electronic ink display, electrophoretic display, active matrix display, electro-wetting display, electro-fluidic display, cathode ray tube display, light-emitting diode display, electroluminescent display, plasma display panel, high-performance addressing display, thin-film transistor display, organic light-emitting diode display, surface-conduction electron-emitter display (SED), laser television, carbon nanotubes, quantum dot display, interferometric modulator display, or any other suitable equipment for displaying visual images. A video card or graphics card may generate the output to the display 412. Audio output equipment 414 may be provided as integrated with other elements of each one of device 400 and equipment 401 or may be stand-alone units. An audio component of videos and other content displayed on display 412 may be played through speakers (or headphones) of audio output equipment 414. In some embodiments, audio may be distributed to a receiver (not shown), which processes and outputs the audio via speakers of audio output equipment 414. In some embodiments, for example, control circuitry 404 is configured to provide audio cues to a user, or other audio feedback to a user, using speakers of audio output equipment 414. There may be a separate microphone 416 or audio output equipment 414 may include a microphone configured to receive audio input such as voice commands or speech. For example, a user may speak letters or words that are received by the microphone and converted to text by control circuitry 404. In a further example, a user may voice commands that are received by a microphone and recognized by control circuitry 404.
The application(s) associated with one or more of the equipment of the UD 101, the IS 103, the CD 105, the CS 106 and the PS 107 may be implemented using any suitable architecture. For example, it may be a stand-alone application wholly implemented on each one of user equipment device 400 and user equipment device 401. In such an approach, instructions of the application may be stored locally (e.g., in storage 408), and data for use by the application is downloaded on a periodic basis (e.g., from an out-of-band feed, from an Internet resource, or using another suitable approach). Computer-readable media includes any media capable of storing data. The computer-readable media may be non-transitory including, but not limited to, volatile and non-volatile computer memory or storage devices such as a hard disk, floppy disk, USB drive, DVD, CD, media card, register memory, processor cache, Random Access Memory (RAM), etc.
In some embodiments, the application(s) associated with one or more of the UD 101, the IS 103, the CD 105, the CS 106 and the PS 107 may be downloaded and interpreted or otherwise run by an interpreter or virtual machine (run by control circuitry 404). In some embodiments, the application(s) may be encoded in the ETV Binary Interchange Format (EBIF), received by control circuitry 404 as part of a suitable feed, and interpreted by a user agent running on control circuitry 404. In some embodiments, the application(s) may be defined by a series of JAVA-based files that are received and run by a local virtual machine or other suitable middleware executed by control circuitry 404. In some of such embodiments (e.g., those employing MPEG-2 or other digital media encoding schemes), application(s) may be, for example, encoded and transmitted in an MPEG-2 object carousel with the MPEG audio and video packets of a program. The UD 101 and its associated equipment, and the equipment of the IS 103, the CD 105, the CS 106 and the PS 107 described with reference to this and other figures, may be coupled to a communication network, which may be one or more networks including the Internet, a mobile phone network, mobile voice or data network (e.g., a 5G, 4G, or LTE network), cable network, public switched telephone network, or other types of communication network or combinations of communication networks. Paths may separately or together include one or more communications paths, such as a satellite path, a fiber-optic path, a cable path, a path that supports Internet communications (e.g., IPTV), free-space connections (e.g., for broadcast or other wireless signals), or any other suitable wired or wireless communications path or combination of such paths.
Although not all communications paths are drawn between user equipment devices, these devices may communicate directly with each other via communications paths as well as other short-range, point-to-point communications paths, such as USB cables, IEEE 1394 cables, wireless paths (e.g., Bluetooth, infrared, IEEE 702-11x, etc.), or other short-range communication via wired or wireless paths. The user equipment devices may also communicate with each other directly through an indirect path via communication network.
As referred to herein, the phrase “user equipment device,” “user equipment,” “user device,” “electronic device,” “electronic equipment,” “media equipment device,” or “media device” should be understood to mean any device for accessing the content described above, such as a television, a Smart TV, a set-top box, an integrated receiver decoder (IRD) for handling satellite television, a digital storage device, a digital media receiver (DMR), a digital media adapter (DMA), a streaming media device, a DVD player, a DVD recorder, a connected DVD, a local media server, a BLU-RAY player, a BLU-RAY recorder, a personal computer (PC), a laptop computer, a tablet computer, a WebTV box, a personal computer television (PC/TV), a PC media server, a PC media center, a hand-held computer, a stationary telephone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a mobile telephone, a portable video player, a portable music player, a portable gaming machine, a smart phone, or any other television equipment, computing equipment, or wireless device, and/or combination of the same. In some embodiments, the user equipment device may have a front facing screen and a rear facing screen, multiple front screens, or multiple angled screens. In some embodiments, the user equipment device may have a front facing camera and/or a rear facing camera. On these user equipment devices, users may be able to navigate among and locate the same content available through a television.
As shown in
As shown in
As shown in
A transaction process will now be described with reference to
In client-server based embodiments, control circuitry may include communications circuitry suitable for communicating with application server or other networks or servers. The instructions for carrying out the above mentioned functionality may be stored on the application server. Communications circuitry may include a cable modem, an integrated services digital network (ISDN) modem, a digital subscriber line (DSL) modem, Ethernet card, or a wireless modem for communications with other equipment, or any other suitable communications circuitry. Such communications may involve the Internet or any other suitable communications networks or paths. In addition, communications circuitry may include circuitry that enables peer-to-peer communication of user equipment devices, or communication of user equipment devices in locations remote from each other.
Control circuitry may include scaler circuitry for upconverting and down converting content into the preferred output format of the user equipment. The circuitry described herein, including for example, the tuning, video generating, encoding, decoding, encrypting, decrypting, scaler, and analog/digital circuitry, may be implemented using software running on one or more general purpose or specialized processors.
At 602 of
At 604, I/O circuitry of the User 101 transmits a request for a temporary user ID from the identity service (IS) 103, as shown by way of example at message 1 of
At 606, the I/O circuitry of UD 101 receives the temporary user ID requested from IS 103, as shown by way of example at message 2 of
At 608, the UD 101 initiates the transaction with the CD 105 using the temporary user ID received from the IS 103, as shown by way of example at message 1 of
CD 105 may perform a number of steps to execute the transaction. Some or all of these steps may be performed by CD 105 automatically. CD 105 may contact PS 107 to request payment for the transaction, as shown by way of example at message 4 of
PS 107 may then process the transaction payment depending on the payment information that was received in encrypted form. PS 107 may contact the UD 101 to request payment and to provide an invoice for the transaction, as shown by way of example at message 7 of
At 610, the UD 101 transmits payment to the PS 107, as shown by way of example at message 8 of
At 612, the UD 101 receives the content data or other data or the service or other product that is the target of the transaction, as shown by way of example at message 6 of
CD 105 may provide the data or service, or transmit the license to UD 101, or may arrange for CS 106 or another node to do so. Depending on the nature of the transaction, in response to receiving payment or indication of payment from the PS 107, the CD device 105 may initiate steps to fulfill the transaction by delivering the content data or other data, service or product that is the target of the transaction. For example, device 105 may transmit content data to the UD device 101 or may contact CS 106 to request content data delivery. According to an embodiment, CS 106 may transmit the content data to the UD 101. According to another embodiment, CS 106 may transmit the content data to the CD 105, which may then transmit content data to the UD 101. CD 105 may initiate the performance of services provided by one or more computer servers, for example, rendering a webpage, creating content, downloading software or other content, providing access to a database, generating content using an AI, creating a password, enrolling the UD 101 as a subscriber, creating a gift card, make payment on a bill, place an order, or the like, for the UD 101 in exchange for the payment or indication of payment received from PS 107. According to an embodiment, CD 105 may fulfill an order of a product, for example, by checking inventory in a warehouse and initiating shipping of the product, in exchange for the payment or indication of payment received from PS 107. The UD 101 may also receive a fuller report of the transaction from the CD 105, including the temporary username that was used and the name, brand, quantity of the content or other data, product or service provided.
At 614, the UD 101 may receive an invoice from the PS 107, as shown by way of example at message 7 of
As shown in communication 717 of
The process concludes and the process may be repeated for another transaction, such that the UD 101 may request and obtain an new temporary user ID (SOTI) from IS 103 and use the new temporary user ID for the new transaction with the same or different CD 105 and/or with the same or different PS 107. The SOTI may be randomized so that previous SOTIs, identifying information of users associated with the UD 101, or of devices or networks associated therewith, cannot be known therefrom. The steps outlined may be executed or performed in any order or sequence not limited to the order and sequence shown and described in the figures. Also, some of the above steps of the diagrams of
At 703, IS 103 replies with the temporary user ID which may be digitally signed by IS 103. This is shown by way of illustrative example in Message 2 of
At 705 user transmits transaction request, which may be a license for digital content to CD 105, as shown by way of illustrative example in Message 3 of
As referred to herein, the terms “content item,” “media asset” and “content” should be understood to mean an electronically consumable user asset, such as television programming, as well as pay-per-view programs, on-demand programs (as in video-on-demand (VOD) systems), Internet content (e.g., streaming content, downloadable content, Webcasts, etc.), video clips, audio, content information, pictures, rotating images, documents, playlists, websites, articles, books, electronic books, blogs, advertisements, chat sessions, social media, applications, games, and/or any other media or multimedia and/or combination of the same. As referred to herein, the term “multimedia” should be understood to mean content that utilizes at least two different content forms described above, for example, text, audio, images, video, or interactivity content forms. Content may be recorded, played, displayed or accessed by user equipment devices, but can also be part of a live performance.
Pursuant to the license request, at 106 CD 105 may seek out the content, for example, from content supplier CS 106. At 707, CD 105 may request content from CS 106, as shown by way of illustrative example in Message 4 of
At 711, CD 105 may request payment and invoice generation to PS 107, as shown by way of illustrative example in Message 6 of
CD 105 may reply to the license request to user 101, as shown at 713, as shown by way of illustrative example in Message 7 of
At 715, user 101 receives an invoice from PS 107 detailing the transaction payment details, as shown by way of illustrative example in Message 8 of
As shown in communication 717 of
The notation also allows an additional specifier to specify that the key pair is ephemeral key pair. For example, an ephemeral public key of the actor B is marked as: pk(Beph).
Message structure fields, e.g., (M1 and M2), are presented as a comma separated list: {M1, M2}. Messaging format may optionally support data structure envelope format like XML, JSON or even MIME. The character ‘#’ is used to specify cryptographic hash algorithm. Concatenation of messages M1 and M2 use notation {M1∥M2}. A message M signed by the actor A, may be shown as:
As shown in
The IS 103 may confirm the authentication information and, if authentication is successful, the service may create a One-Time Identifier (OTI) for the user, which may be a random value, such as a cryptographic nonce. The OTI is signed by the IS 103 to create a Signed One-Time Identifier (SOTI). The IS 103 may also digitally sign the ephemeral public key to create pk(Ueph)sk(IS), and also digitally sign the invoice address, as shown in
The UD 101 may encrypt the payment information (invoice address) that had been digitally signed by the IS 103. The UD 101 may perform this encryption using a public key of the PS 107, for example, as shown using the public key encryption process of
In response, the CD 105 may take care of license management. According to an aspect of the disclosure, a Content Encryption Key (CEK) for a media item may be managed by the Content Supplier 106. The CEK may enable the UD 101 to access the content that is the object of the transaction, for example, by accessing the CD 106 after payments are concluded. The CD 105 may send a request for CEK to the Content Supplier 106, as shown by way of illustration in Message 4 of
In reply, as shown in Message 5, the CD 105 may receive from CS 106 a message that contains an encrypted CEK value, and may be signed using a secret key of the CS 106 to assure the CD 105 that it is from the CS 106. In an embodiment, the CD 105 cannot decrypt this message, because it is encrypted by the ephemeral key of the user. According to this embodiment, in this way the CD 105 can pass along to the UD 101 the ability to access the content, but the CD cannot neither access the content itself nor enable others to do so.
When the CD 105 receives the encrypted CEK, as shown by way of example in Message 6, CD 105 may send an invoice message to a PS 107 containing the amount of payment, the license identifier, the signed ephemeral key of the UD, and the encrypted invoice.
At Message 7 the CD 105 may then send the license information, including the encrypted CEK, to the UD 101 together with a report that contains other information. Message 7 may include: the CEK, which may be encrypted using the ephemeral key—pk(Ueph) of the UD 101; and a license ID for the product to be transmitted to the UD 101. Encryption using the pk(Ueph) may prevent tampering by the CD 105 with the content/license for the content that it receives from another source, such as from the CS 106, and may assure the UD 101 that the content/license for the content received is responsive to the original request of the UD 101 pursuant to the transaction initiated. The UD 101 may decrypt the encrypted CEK using the private key of the UD 101. The CD 105 may also transmit to the UD 101 a verification message detailing other aspect of the content, license and/or transaction.
The PS 107 may then send the invoice to the UD 101, as shown in Message 8. The invoice may include the amount of the transaction being billed and the license ID digitally signed by the PS 107 using the secret key of the PS 107 to assure the UD 101 of the source of the transmission (the source is the PS 107) and thus to assure the UD 101 of the association between the amount due and the license/transaction.
At 904, the Identification service 103 receives the transmission from the UD 101 and authenticates user 904 using user credentials. The IS 103 may generate a temporary user ID (SOTI) for the user to be used for this transaction, and may transmit this temporary user ID and the user payment information, both of which may be digitally signed by IS 103, to the UD 101. As discussed above, the IS 103 may use its own private key to sign the temporary user ID and the user payment information, so that any party with a public key of the IS 103 may read this information and be assured that it is sent from the IS 103.
At 906, the UD 101, upon receiving this transmission from the IS 103, may encrypt the user payment information signed by the IS 103 to ensure that only the PS 101 can read it. For example, UD 101 may use a public key of the PS 107 to encrypt the user payment information. Once it is encrypted using the public key of the PS 107, this user payment information may be read only by decrypting the user payment information using the private key of the PS 107. The UD 101 transmits this encrypted user payment information, as signed by the IS 103, together with the temporary user ID also signed by IS 103, to the Content provider (CD) 105.
CD 105, upon receiving this transmission from the UD 101, at 908, transmits the temporary user ID signed by the IS 103, and the encrypted user payment information signed by the IS 103, to the PS 107. In this way, content provider 105 requests payment.
At 910, PS 107 decrypts, using its private key, the user payment information that had been encrypted by the UD 101. The PS 107 associates the temporary user ID for user device 101 with the user payment information that it has decrypted. At 912, the PS 107 generates an invoice and transmits it to the UD 101.
Turning to
The content data may be known, in addition to the user device, only by the CD 105 and the CS 106. The license data for the content data may be known, in addition to the user device, only by the CD, the CS and the PS 107. The payment transmitted by user device, as well as the invoice details, may be known only by the PS 107, in addition to the user device. The CEK, if relevant, may be known, in addition to the user device, only by the CS 106.
It will be understood, however, that according to other implementations, one or more additional nodes may learn of various aspects of user data. Accordingly, access to user profile data may be controlled, and online user privacy, including billing privacy, may be preserved or enhanced. According to an embodiment, an unscrupulous CD may not learn data of the user profile.
The term “and/or,” may be understood to mean “either or both” of the elements thus indicated. Additional elements may optionally be present unless excluded by the context. Terms such as “first,” “second,” “third” in the claims referring to a structure, module or step should not necessarily be construed to mean precedence or temporal order but are generally intended to distinguish between claim elements.
The above-described embodiments are intended to be examples only. Components or processes described as separate may be combined or combined in ways other than as described, and components or processes described as being together or as integrated may be provided separately. Steps or processes described as being performed in a particular order may be re-ordered or recombined.
Features and limitations described in any one embodiment may be applied to any other embodiment herein, and flowcharts or examples relating to one embodiment may be combined with any other embodiment in a suitable manner, done in different orders, or done in parallel. In addition, the systems and methods described herein may be performed in real time.
It should also be noted that the systems and/or methods described above may be applied to, or used in accordance with, other systems and/or methods. In various embodiments, additional elements may be included, some elements may be removed, and/or elements may be arranged differently from what is shown. Alterations, modifications and variations can be effected to the particular embodiments by those of skill in the art without departing from the scope of the present application, which is defined solely by the claims appended hereto.
