Anonymous whistle blower system with reputation reporting of anonymous whistle blower
AssigneeUniloc Luxembourg S.A.
InventorCraig S. ETCHEGOYEN
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Abstract
Reputations of anonymous sources of information are managed by associating the reputations with devices from which the information is received rather than from the human individuals using those devices. The devices are recognized using a one-way identifier, such as a digital fingerprint, such that the source device cannot be used to readily identify the source device or its user(s) but all items of information received from the same source device can be readily recognized. Feedback from other devices is accumulated and used to assess trustworthiness of the source device and reputation data representing such trustworthiness is published along with the information received from the source device.
Claims5
A method for managing reputations of anonymous sources of information, the method comprising:
- receiving information from an anonymous user via a remotely located source device through a computer network, wherein the information includes a device fingerprint generated by a combination of operations on data specific to the remotely located source device;
- deriving reputation data that represents a measure of trustworthiness of information received from the remotely located source device from feedback received from other remotely located devices, wherein the feedback pertains to one or more items of information previously received from the remotely located source device;
- and
- publishing the information received from the remotely located source device along with the reputation data.
A computer system comprising:
- at least one processor;
- a computer readable medium that is operatively coupled to the processor;
- network access circuitry that is operatively coupled to the processor;
- and
- information management logic (i) that executes in the processor from the computer readable medium and (ii) that, when executed by the processor, causes the computer to manage reputations of anonymous sources of information by at least:
- receiving information from an anonymous user of a remotely located source device through a computer network, wherein the information includes a device fingerprint generated by a combination of operations on data specific to the remotely located source device;
- deriving reputation data that represents a measure of trustworthiness of information received from the remotely located source device from feedback received from other remotely located devices, wherein the feedback pertains to one or more items of information previously received from the remotely located source device;
- and
- publishing the information received from the remotely located source device along with the reputation data.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.