Granted Patent B1

US 9,300,637 · App. 13/844,633 · Granted Mar 29, 2016

Abstract

Claims (64)

1. A method for anonymizing data to be transmitted to a destination computing device, comprising:

receiving data to be transmitted to the destination from a user computer, the data including one or more characters;

providing a tree of nodes, with each node representing a node value and a corresponding token value, wherein, each node configured to have a left child node and a right child node, with each of the path leading to the left child node and the right child node each representing a value and the values of the paths followed to reach one of the nodes representing the corresponding token value for the one of the nodes;

providing a data store to store a plurality of attributes associated with each node, a plurality of attributes including the node value, left boundary value,

right boundary value, left child node value, right child node value and the token value;

finding a node with a node value equal to a value of the data, by searching the data store for a node having the attributes of (x>left boundary value) and (x<right boundary value) and (node data value=x), where, x=value of the data;

selecting the corresponding token value of the found node as the anonymized representation of the data;

replacing the data with the token value; and

transmitting the token value instead of the data to the destination computing device over a network for storage in the destination computing device.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein, if a node with a node value equal to the value of the data is not found, adding another node to the tree of nodes representing the value of the data, with a corresponding token value.

3. The method of claim 2 ,

wherein, adding another node further including locating a node with available child node having the following attributes: (x>left boundary value) and (x<right boundary value) and ((node data value>x and left child node value=null) or (node data value<x and right child node value=null)), where, x=value of the data.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the path leading to the left child node and the right child node each representing one of the two binary values.

5. The method of claim 1 , further including

receiving anonymized data from the destination computing device; and

de-anonymizing the received anonymized data by replacing the token value with data value.

6. A method for anonymizing data to be transmitted to a destination computing device, comprising:

receiving data to be transmitted to the destination from a user computer, the data including one or more characters;

replacing the data with a token representative of the data; and

transmitting the token to the destination computing device over a network;

wherein replacing the data to a corresponding token further including:

providing a tree of nodes, with each node representing a node value and a corresponding token value;

finding a node with a node value equal to the value of the data; and

selecting the corresponding token value as the token representative of the data;

wherein, each node configured to have a left child node and a right child node, with each of the path leading to the left child node and the right child node each representing a value; and

the values of the paths followed to reach one of the nodes representing the corresponding token value for the one of the nodes;

wherein the path leading to the left child node and the right child node each representing one of the two binary values;

providing a data store to store a plurality of attributes associated with each node, a plurality of attributes including the node value, left boundary value, right boundary value, left child node value, right child node value and the token value; and

wherein, if a node with a node value equal to the value of the data is not found, adding another node to the tree of nodes representing the value of the data, with a corresponding token value, by locating a node with available child node having the following attributes:

(x>left boundary value) and (x<right boundary value) and ((node data value>x and left child node value=null) or (node data value<x and right child node value=null)), where, x=value of the data.

7. The method of claim 6 , further including

receiving anonymized data from the destination computing device; and

de-anonymizing the received anonymized data by replacing the token value with data value.

8. An anonymization system to anonymize data transmitted to a destination computing device, comprising:

a logic to receive data to be transmitted to the destination from a user computer, the data including one or more characters;

a data store with a tree of nodes, with each node representing a node value and a corresponding token value, wherein, each node is configured to have a left child node and a right child node, with each of the path leading to the left child node and the right child node each representing a value;

wherein, the values of the paths followed to reach one of the nodes represents the corresponding token value for the one of the nodes; and wherein, the data store stores a plurality of attributes associated with each node, a plurality of attributes including the node value, left boundary value, right boundary value, left child node value, right child node value and the token value;

a logic to find a node with a node value equal to a value of the data, wherein, a node with a node value equal to the value of the data is found by searching the data store for a node with (x> left boundary value) and (x< right boundary value) and (node data value=x), where, x=value of the data, and select the corresponding token value of the found node as the anonymized representation of the data; and

an anonymization module to replace the data with the token; and transmit the token value to the destination computing device over a network for storage in the destination computing device.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein, if a node with a node value equal to the value of the data is not found, another node is added to the tree of nodes that represents the value of the data, with a corresponding token value.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein, another node is added by locating a node with available child node having the following attributes:

(x>left boundary value) and (x<right boundary value) and ((node data value>x and left child node value=null) or (node data value<x and right child node value=null)), where, x=value of the data.

11. The system of claim 8 , wherein the path leading to the left child node and the right child node each representing one of the two binary values.

12. The system of claim 8 , further configured to

receive anonymized data from the destination computing device; and

de-anonymize the received anonymized data by replacing the token value with data value.

13. An anonymization system to anonymize data transmitted to a destination computing device, comprising:

a logic to receive data to be transmitted to the destination from a user computer, the data including one or more characters; and

an anonymization module to

replace the data with a token representative of the data; and

transmit the token to the destination computing device over a network;

a data store with a tree of nodes, with each node representing a node value and a corresponding token value; and

a logic to find a node with a node value equal to the value of the data and

select the corresponding token value as the token representative of the data;

wherein, if a node with a node value equal to the value of the data is not found, another node is added to the tree of nodes that represents the value of the data, with a corresponding token value;

wherein, each node is configured to have a left child node and a right child node, with each of the path leading to the left child node and the right child node each representing a value; and

the values of the paths followed to reach one of the nodes represents the corresponding token value for the one of the nodes;

wherein the path leading to the left child node and the right child node each representing one of the two binary values;

wherein, the data store stores a plurality of attributes associated with each node, a plurality of attributes including the node value, left boundary value, right boundary value, left child node value, right child node value and the token value; and

wherein, if a node with a node value equal to the value of the data is not found, another node is added to the tree of nodes that represents the value of the data, with a corresponding token value, by locating a node with available child node having the following attributes:

(x>left boundary value) and (x<right boundary value) and ((node data value>x and left child node value=null) or (node data value<x and right child node value=null)), where, x=value of the data.

14. The system of claim 13 , further configured to

receive anonymized data from the destination computing device; and

de-anonymize the received anonymized data by replacing the token with data value.

Assignments (14)