Veracity measures for online discourse
OwnerStephen B. Heppe, Kenan G. Heppe +1inventors
InventorsStephen B. Heppe, Kenan G. Heppe, Trevor Wright
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Abstract
Systems and methods are disclosed for evaluating the veracity of online content, particularly in cases where the online content is signed/authenticated by one or more digital signatures associated with one or more users. Also disclosed are systems and methods for storing and retrieving authenticated content, and displaying authenticated content referencing other authenticated content.
Claims9
A system comprising a veracity server, comprising:
- a processor;
- a memory;
- and
- a network interface device;
- wherein the veracity server is adapted to:
- receive a post at a network interface device, comprising authenticated content, from a user accessing the veracity server via the Internet;
- store the received post in a database for subsequent retrieval;
- index the received post according to at least one digital signature constructed over content contained within the received post;
- and
- respond to a query received at the network interface device, specifying the indexed digital signature, by retrieving the stored post, and generating and transmitting a response comprising the retrieved stored post;
- wherein the veracity server:
- verifies authentication of the authenticated content by retrieving a public key of an identified entity that generated the digital signature, from a Certification Authority in accordance with the methods specified in ITU-T X.509v3 or RFC 5280;
- and
- verifies that a hash of the digital signature, used as authentication metadata uploaded to the veracity server with the received post and generated using a private key associated with the user, matches a hash of the authenticated content.
A method for computing a veracity score for authenticated online content posted by a first entity, the method comprising:
- generating, with a processor, a first metric adapted to assess the likelihood that the authenticated content was generated by a human being;
- generating at least one additional metric, wherein the at least one additional metric is either:
- based on an offered digital certificate of status associated with the content posted by the first entity online;
- or
- the trustworthiness of the posting entity based on an assessment of the trustworthiness of the posting entity's domain;
- and
- wherein the veracity score is a non-trivial mathematical function of the first metric and the at least one additional metric, and the processor:
- verifies authentication of the authenticated online content by retrieving a public key, of the first entity, from a Certification Authority in accordance with the methods specified in ITU-T X.509v3 or RFC 5280;
- and
- verifies that a hash of a digital signature, used as authentication metadata uploaded to the veracity server with the authenticated online content and generated using a private key associated with the human being, matches a hash of the authenticated online content.
A computer readable storage medium storing a program of machine-readable instructions executable by a digital processing apparatus to perform data processing operations for:
- receiving a first internet protocol (IP) message;
- determining that the first IP message comprises a client request to post authenticated content for public access in the form of a post;
- storing the post in a database for subsequent retrieval;
- indexing the post according to at least one digital signature constructed over content contained within the post;
- and
- responding to a query contained within a second IP message, specifying the indexed digital signature, by retrieving the stored post, and generating and transmitting a response comprising the retrieved stored post;
- wherein the response comprises a veracity score;
- and
- wherein the veracity server:
- verifies authentication of the authenticated content by retrieving a public key, of an identified entity that generated the digital signature, from a Certification Authority in accordance with the methods specified in ITU-T X.509v3 or RFC 5280;
- and
- verifies that a hash of the digital signature, used as authentication metadata uploaded to the veracity server with the first IP message and generated using a private key associated with the client, matches a hash of the content over which the digital signature was constructed.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.