Privacy solutions for cyber space

A method of establishing a chain of trust agents that are used by individuals to claim personal attributes without revealing their identity;

• the method comprising:
• (i) an individual person, P, associated with n personal attributes:
• A0={a1, a2, . . . an};
• (ii) a first trust-agent, TA1;
• (iii) additional t−1 trust agents TA2, . . . TAt;
• (iv) An entity Q for which P wishes to prove their association with attributes a1, a2, . . . ai for i=1, 2, . . . n, without revealing their identity, Ip;
• the method further comprising the following steps:
• 1′. P presents Ip and A before TA1;
• 2′. TA1 verifies P via Ip, and verifies A as associated with P;
• 3′. TA1 activates a “Decoy Procedure” defined as follows:
• 3′.1 The activating trust agent, TA, defines an entry bit string, x, comprising Ip and A*:
• x={Ip, A*} where A*=A or A*∈A,
• 3′.2 The activating trust agent uses a random number generator, RNG, to build a corresponding exit bit string x′:
• x′=TA(x,RNG)
• wherein the values of A* remains unchanged, but Ip is replaced with a string H1:
• x′={H1, A*},
• 3′.3 The activating trust agent, TA, keeps a record to document the match x↔x′,
• 3′.4 The activating trust agent, TA, transmits to the submitter of x the bit string x′;
• 4′. P receives the output from the Decoy Procedure, x′0=x1 from TA1;
• where x0={Ip, A}, and where x1={H1, A}, where H1 is a randomized match for Ip;
• 5′. P selects an arbitrary subset A1 of A, A1∈A, and modifies string x1 as follows:
• x1={H1, A1};
• 6′. P submits x1 to trust agent TA2;
• 7′. Trust agent TA2 activates the Decoy Procedure, and thereby generates output string x2:
• x2=TA2(x1,RNG)
• and where:
• x2={H2,A1};
• and where P selects an arbitrary subset A2 of A1, A2∈A1, and modifies string x2 as follows:
• x2={H1,A2};
• 8′. where for j=1, 2, . . . t−1:
• 8′.1 P modifies xj from xj={Hj, Aj−1} to xj={Hj, Aj} where Aj∈Aj−1,
• 8′.2 P submits xj to TAj+1,
• 8′.3 TAj+1 activates the Decoy procedure and generates x′j={Hj, Aj−1} xj−1 xj+1={Hj+1, Aj},
• 8′.4 P modifies xj+1 from xj+1={Hj+1, Aj} to xj+1={Hj+1, Aj+1} where Aj+1∈Aj;
• 9′. P submits xj to Q, for j=1, 2, . . . t;
• 10′. Q accepts that P is associated with the set of personal attributes Aj.