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US 10,747,897 B2Granted
Privacy policy rating system
AssigneeEarly Warning Services, LLC
InventorMichael Cook
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A system includes a processor and a memory accessible to the processor. The memory stores instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to determine a privacy policy score for one of an application and a website and provide the privacy policy score to a device.
Claims20
A system comprising:
- a privacy policy analysis system (PPAS) and a user device, the user device for communicating with websites, wherein each of the PPAS and the user device include:
- a processor;
- a memory accessible to the processor and storing instructions that, when executed-by the processor, cause the processor to:
- automatically determine, at the PPAS, a privacy policy score for a website based on an automatic semantic analysis of text of a privacy policy associated with the website by retrieving the privacy policy score from a database;
- receive at the PPAS, from a user at the user device, user preferences that reflect the relative importance of each of one or more privacy policy characteristics to that user;
- customize, at the PPAS, the privacy policy score based on the user preferences of that user;
- provide, at the PPAS, the privacy policy score to a privacy policy plugin associated with an Internet browser application executing on the user device;
- display, at the user device, the privacy policy score within a browser window of the Internet browser application;
- block, at the user device, access to the website by the privacy policy plugin associated with the Internet browser application, when the privacy policy score falls below a threshold value;
- and
- survey a plurality of users for receiving, at the PPAS from the plurality of users, user preferences reflecting the relative importance of one or more of the privacy policy characteristics to the plurality of users;
- wherein the user preferences received from the plurality of users, are combined to produce a weighting factor for the one or more privacy policy characteristics, in determining the privacy policy score.
9 more elements
A method comprising:
- automatically searching a privacy policy database including privacy policy data associated with a plurality of websites to determine a privacy policy score for a privacy policy associated with a website using an identifier, the identifier including at least one of a web site address and a name of an application;
- when the privacy policy score is found, retrieving the privacy policy score associated with the identifier;
- when the privacy policy score is not found, retrieving text of the privacy policy from the website and automatically semantically analyzing the text of the privacy policy to determine the privacy policy score;
- receiving, from a user, user preferences that reflect the relative importance to that user of each of a plurality of privacy policy characteristics;
- customizing the privacy policy score based on the user preferences of that user;
- providing the privacy policy score to a privacy policy plugin associated with an Internet browser application executing on a device;
- displaying, at the device, the privacy policy score within a browser window of the Internet browser application;
- blocking, at the device, access to the website by the privacy policy plugin associated with the Internet browser application, when the privacy policy score falls below a threshold value;
- and
- surveying a plurality of users for receiving, from the plurality of users, user preferences reflecting the relative importance of one or more of the privacy policy characteristics to the plurality of users;
- wherein the user preferences received from the plurality of users, are combined to produce a weighting factor for the plurality of privacy policy characteristics in determining the privacy policy score.
8 more elements
A memory device comprising instructions that, when executed, cause a processor to:
- determine a privacy policy score corresponding to one of a website and an application by searching a privacy policy database including a plurality of privacy policy scores and associated text of privacy policies, each privacy policy score corresponding to one of a website and an application;
- when the privacy policy score is not present in the privacy policy database:
- automatically retrieve text of a privacy policy corresponding to one of the website and the application from a data source when the privacy policy score is not present in the privacy policy database;
- automatically determine one or more scores associated with sections of the text of the privacy policy by semantically analyzing text of the privacy policy to determine a plurality of privacy policy elements and determining a score for each of the plurality of privacy policy elements;
- and
- determine the privacy policy score based on the one or more scores;
- receive, from a user, user preferences that reflect the relative importance of a plurality of privacy policy characteristics to that user;
- customize the determined privacy policy score based on the user preferences of that user;
- survey a plurality of users for receiving, from the plurality of users, user preferences reflecting the relative importance of one or more of the privacy policy characteristics to the plurality of users;
- wherein the user preferences received from the plurality of users, are combined to produce a weighting factor for the plurality of privacy policy characteristics in determining the privacy policy score;
- provide the privacy policy score to a privacy policy plugin associated with an Internet browser application executing on a device;
- display, at the device, the privacy policy score within the browser window of the Internet browser application;
- and
- block, at the device, access to the website by the privacy policy plugin associated with the Internet browser application, when the privacy policy score falls below a threshold value.
11 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.