Secure message service for managing third-party dissemination of sensitive information
AssigneeAmazon Technologies, Inc.
InventorMyles Conley
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A message relay service receives, from a third-party mass delivery service, an electronic message that includes an electronic address of an entity and obscured data, where the plaintext data of the obscured data is unattainable by third-party mass delivery service. The message relay service identifies, based at least in part on the entity's electronic address and the obscured data, permissions usable to determine if the entity is authorized to transmit the electronic message. If the entity is authorized to transmit the message, the message relay service de-obscures the obscured data to obtain the plaintext data. The message relay service transmits the electronic message including the plaintext data to a recipient specified in the electronic message.
Claims20
A computer-implemented method, comprising:
- generating an electronic message comprising an electronic address of an authoring entity and obscured data, where plaintext data of the obscured data is unattainable by a third-party mass delivery service and the obscured data includes metadata that specifies one or more parameters for de-obscuring the obscured data;
- transmitting, via the third-party mass delivery service, the electronic message to a message relay service for de-obscuring the obscured data;
- identifying, based at least in part on the electronic address of the authoring entity and the obscured data, permissions usable to determine whether the authoring entity is authorized to transmit the electronic message;
- as a result of the permissions indicating that the authoring entity is authorized to transmit the electronic message to the recipient, evaluating, at the message relay service, the metadata to identify the one or more parameters for de-obscuring the obscured data;
- determining, based at least in part on the metadata, that the recipient is authorized to obtain the plaintext data;
- utilizing the one or more parameters to de-obscure the obscured data to obtain the plaintext data;
- and
- providing the electronic message to the electronic message service for delivery to the recipient.
A system, comprising at least one computing device configured to implement one or more services, wherein the one or more services:
- receive, from a third-party mass delivery service, an electronic message comprising an electronic address of an entity and obscured data, where plaintext data of the obscured data is unattainable by the third-party mass delivery service;
- identify, based at least in part on the electronic address of the entity and the obscured data, permissions usable to determine whether the entity is authorized to transmit the electronic message;
- as a result of the permissions indicating that the entity is authorized to transmit the electronic message, de-obscure an obscured field in the electronic message to obtain plaintext data;
- and
- cause the electronic message including the plaintext data to be transmitted to a recipient specified in the electronic message.
A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon executable instructions that, as a result of being executed by one or more processors of a computer system, cause the computer system to at least:
- obtain an electronic message comprising obscured data and specifying an electronic address of an entity, where plaintext data of the obscured data is unattainable by a third-party mass delivery service;
- identify, based at least in part on the electronic address of the entity, permissions usable to determine whether the entity is authorized to relay the electronic message;
- as a result of the permissions indicating that the entity is authorized to relay the electronic message, de-obscure the obscured data to obtain plaintext data;
- and
- enable delivery of the electronic message to a recipient specified in the electronic message.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.