System, apparatus and method for providing privacy preserving interaction with a computing system
View Patent ↗In one embodiment, a system including one or more hardware processors is: to receive a user request to access a website; sign a nonce with at least some of the plurality of group private keys, the at least some of the plurality of group private keys corresponding to personalization attributes of the website; and send the signed nonce to a web server to enable personalized interaction with the web server. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
1. A system comprising:
a hardware processor to execute instructions;
a hardware key storage coupled to the hardware processor, the hardware key storage to store a plurality of group private keys, each of the plurality of group private keys associated with a personalization preference of a user; and
at least one storage medium including instructions that when executed enable the hardware processor to:
receive a user request to access a website;
send a nonce to a web server with the user request to access the website;
receive the nonce from the web server and a list of personalization groups;
receive membership information indicative of a population of users having a personalization preference for a corresponding group of the list of personalization groups;
determine at least some of the plurality of group private keys with which to sign the nonce based at least in part on the membership information, the at least some of the plurality of group private keys corresponding to personalization attributes of the website;
sign the nonce with the at least some of the plurality of group private keys including a first group private key when the membership information indicates that at least a threshold number of users have the personalization preference for the corresponding group, the threshold number defined by the user; and
send the signed nonce to the web server to enable personalized interaction with the web server.
2. The system of claim 1 , further comprising instructions that when executed enable the hardware processor to determine the at least some of the plurality of group private keys with which to sign the nonce based at least in part on the list of personalization groups, each of the at least some of the plurality of group private keys associated with one of the groups of the list of personalization groups.
3. The system of claim 1 , further comprising instructions that when executed enable the hardware processor to determine the at least some of the plurality of group private keys with which to sign the nonce further based on a user privacy setting for a browser of the system.
4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the hardware processor is to sign the nonce with less than all of the plurality of group private keys, to maintain anonymity of the user.
5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the hardware processor is to identify a subset of the plurality of group private keys associated with groups having potentially user identifying information and not sign the nonce with the subset of the plurality of group private keys.
6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the hardware processor is to perform a join communication protocol with a group server to obtain the plurality of group private keys, the plurality of group private keys corresponding to enhanced privacy identifier keys, the group server being at least one of a personalization group server and a reputation group server.
7. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a cache memory to store a pre-signed nonce, and further comprising instructions that when executed enable the system to send the pre-signed nonce to the web server responsive to the user request.
8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the hardware key storage comprises a shared resource accessible to a plurality of applications to execute on the system, wherein at least some of the plurality of applications are isolated from others of the plurality of applications.
9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the hardware key storage comprises a trusted platform module.
10. The system of claim 1 , wherein the personalized interaction comprises a personalized representation of the website, without communication of a trackable cookie.
11. At least one computer readable storage medium comprising instructions that when executed enable a system to:
generate a list of groups, each of the groups of the list of groups associated with a group category for which presentation of information can be personalized;
provide the list of groups to a plurality of computing devices, to enable establishment of a set of private keys for each computing device, each of the set of private keys to identify a set of group categories for which a user of the computing device has a personalization preference;
determine whether a population of users having a personalization preference for a particular group category exceeds a threshold; and
responsive to the determination, provide a public key associated with the particular group category to a plurality of web servers, to enable the plurality of web servers to provide personalization of the presentation of information with respect to the personalization preference;
wherein a web server from among the plurality of web servers comprises a credential manager server, and wherein the credential manager server is to provide a reputation credential to the user of the computing device responsive to verification, via the public key, of a credential request from the computing device.
12. The at least one computer readable medium of claim 11 , further comprising instructions that when executed enable the system to perform a join communication protocol to provide the set of private keys to a computing device of the plurality of computing devices for the set of group categories for which a user of the computing device has a personalization preference.
13. The at least one computer readable medium of claim 11 , further comprising instructions that when executed enable the system to provide a set of public keys to each of the plurality of web servers, each of the set of public keys associated with a particular group category having the population of users that exceeds the threshold.
14. A method comprising:
responsive to a request from a first remote computing device for access to information content, sending, from a first server coupled to the first remote computing device, a list of group categories to the first remote computing device, each group category of the list of group categories to identify a customization attribute for the information content;
responsive to the request from the first remote computing device, sending a nonce with the list of group categories to the first remote computing device;
receiving, in the first server, a set of values from the first remote computing device, each of the set of values signed by a private key of the first remote computing device associated with a group category of a subset of group categories of the list of group categories, wherein the set of values comprises the nonce signed with a plurality of the private keys of the first remote computing device associated with the subset of group categories; and
customizing the information content based on the set of values and sending the customized information content to the first remote computing device.
15. The method of claim 14 , further comprising verifying the set of values using corresponding public keys received from a group server coupled to the first server.
16. The method of claim 15 , further comprising:
receiving the list of group categories from the group server; and
receiving a public key for a first group category of the list of group categories when a predetermined number of users are associated with the customization attribute.
17. The method of claim 14 , wherein the customization attribute comprises a reputation attribute.