Privacy server for protecting personally identifiable information
AssigneePearson Education, Inc.
InventorsRichard Paul Hughes, Hong-Yu Chiang, Gregory Dean McFall, Perry Michael Spagnola
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A privacy server protects private information by substituting a token or an identifier for the private information. The privacy server recognizes that a communication includes private information and intercepts the communication. The privacy server replaces the private information with a random or pseudo-random token or identifier. The privacy server maintains the private information in a local database and associates the private information for a particular person with the token or identifier for that person.
Claims14
A privacy server for protecting personally identifiable information transmitted in a communication in an educational environment, the privacy server comprising:
- a non-transitory computer-readable medium capable of storing code for performing operations including:
- receiving the communication from a first computing device located in a first jurisdiction, wherein:
- the first jurisdiction includes geography that is not included in a second jurisdiction,
- the first jurisdiction is associated with laws that restrict transmissions of the personally identifiable information within the geography associated with the first jurisdiction or transmissions to the second jurisdiction,
- the second jurisdiction includes other geography that is not included in the first jurisdiction,
- content of the communication includes a name and identifier of a student associated with the first jurisdiction or the second jurisdiction, and
- the content of the communication includes a spreadsheet, form, template, or web page that includes the name or identifier of the student;
- analyzing the communication to determine whether the communication is intended to be transmitted to the second jurisdiction;
- determining that the content of the communication includes the personally identifiable information associated with the laws that restrict transmissions of the personally identifiable information;
- and
- when the content of the communication includes the personally identifiable information associated with the laws that restrict transmissions of the personally identifiable information:
- creating a token to replace the personally identifiable information in the content of the communication,
- substituting the personally identifiable information in the content of the communication with the token, and
- transmitting the communication with the token instead of the personally identifiable information to a second computing device associated with the second jurisdiction.
A method of protecting personally identifiable information transmitted in a communication in an educational environment, the method comprising:
- receiving the communication from a first computing device located in a first jurisdiction, wherein:
- the first jurisdiction includes geography that is not included in a second jurisdiction,
- the first jurisdiction is associated with laws that restrict transmissions of the personally identifiable information within the geography associated with the first jurisdiction or transmissions to the second jurisdiction,
- the second jurisdiction includes other geography that is not included in the first jurisdiction,
- content of the communication includes a name and identifier of a student associated with the first jurisdiction or the second jurisdiction, and
- the content of the communication includes a spreadsheet, form, template, or web page that includes the name or identifier of the student;
- analyzing the communication to determine whether the communication is intended to be transmitted to the second jurisdiction;
- determining that the content of the communication includes the personally identifiable information associated with the laws that restrict transmissions of the personally identifiable information;
- and
- when the content of the communication includes the personally identifiable information associated with the laws that restrict transmissions of the personally identifiable information:
- creating a token to replace the personally identifiable information in the content of the communication,
- substituting the personally identifiable information in the content of the communication with the token, and
- transmitting the communication with the token instead of the personally identifiable information to a second computing device associated with the second jurisdiction.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.