Patent Issued for Privacy score (USPTO 11816232): Allstate Insurance Company

2023 NOV 30 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- A patent by the inventors Daftary, Siddharth (Chicago, IL, US), Dhakshnamoorthy, Jhanani (Boothwyn, PA, US), Lu, Marvin (Chicago, IL, US), Patel, Shashin (Chicago, IL, US), Schapiro, Jessica (Chicago, IL, US), Sharp, Michael (Chicago, IL, US), Stewart, Jacob (Arlington Heights, IL, US), filed on January 12, 2022, was published online on November 14, 2023, according to news reporting originating from Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx correspondents.

Patent number 11816232 is assigned to Allstate Insurance Company (Northbrook, Illinois, United States).

The following quote was obtained by the news editors from the background information supplied by the inventors: “A consumer’s awareness of their own privacy in today’s online environment is difficult due to the increased connectivity and the increased number of consumer accounts accessible via web enabled computing devices. Consumers today have a large number of online accounts, and keeping track of them is sometimes difficult and can be time consuming. Many consumers have accounts that they have long forgotten about, but those accounts may still be active. Further, consumers do not understand how the companies with which they have these accounts are using or protecting their personal data, in part due to long and complex privacy policies. Consumers do not understand what data companies are collecting, how that data is being used or shared, and what rights they have to that data (ability to delete, edit, etc.). It is important from a personal privacy perspective that the consumer be aware of all of their online accounts and be informed about the privacy practices of the companies with which they have these accounts.”

In addition to the background information obtained for this patent, NewsRx journalists also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “In light of the foregoing background, the following presents a simplified summary of the present disclosure in order to provide a basic understanding of some aspects of the invention. This summary is not an extensive overview of the invention. It is not intended to identify key or critical elements of the invention or to delineate the scope of the invention. The following summary merely presents some concepts of the invention in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description provided below.

“Aspects of the disclosure address one or more of the issues mentioned above by disclosing methods, computer readable storage media, software, systems, and apparatuses for use by a consumer in order to keep track of a consumer’s accounts and to understand privacy practices associated with the companies providing those accounts. The discovered accounts may be listed and displayed to the consumer, along with a company privacy score associated with each account. In addition, the company privacy scores may be generated or calculated, based on various measures related to company privacy practices and/or company privacy policies.

“In some aspects, a cyber-privacy system may include a cyber-privacy account analysis system and a cyber-privacy data processing system The cyber-privacy system may include at least one processor and a memory unit storing computer-executable instructions. In some embodiments, the computer-executable instructions may be stored in one or more non-transitory computer-readable media. The cyber-privacy system may be configured to, in operation, monitor at least one email account of the consumer. The cyber-privacy system may be configured to, in operation, determine source information for each email correspondence in the monitored at least one email account. Based on the determined source information for each email correspondence, the cyber-privacy system may generate a list of companies associated with the consumer. The cyber-privacy system may, in operation, also determine for each email correspondence a likelihood that the email correspondence represents an account of the consumer. Based on the determined likelihood that each email correspondence represents an account of the consumer, the cyber-privacy system may generate a list of accounts associated with the consumer.

“In other aspects, the cyber-privacy system may also be configured to, in operation, monitor at least a consumer’s internet browser history and internet browser cache in addition to a consumer’s email accounts. The cyber-privacy system may be configured to, in operation, generate a list of companies associated with the consumer based on a consumer’s internet browser history and internet browser cache. Using the list of companies created from the analysis of a consumer’s email, browser history, and browser cache, the cyber-privacy system may, in operation, also determine the likelihood whether a consumer has an account with the companies.

“In some aspects, the cyber-privacy system may, in operation, determine and provide an indication of a company privacy score for each company that the consumer has an account with. In some aspects, the cyber-privacy system may, in operation, determine and provide an indication of a company privacy score for a company associated with a website that a consumer may visit. The cyber-privacy system may be configured, in operation, to determine and provide a consumer’s privacy score, in addition to the company privacy scores. The cyber-privacy system may also determine and provide information related a trend in a company privacy score and/or the consumer’s privacy score.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A system for recommending at least one second company over a first company based on a privacy score comparison between the second company and the first company comprising: one or more processors configured to: receive indication that a user has directed a web browser to a uniform resource locator of a website of the first company; determine, based on the uniform resource locator, at least one product or service provided by the first company; access a first predetermined privacy score determined for the first company; responsive to determining the at least one product or service, determine the at least one second company based on the at least one second company also providing the determined at least one product or service; display identifying information of the first company, including the first predetermined privacy score; determine whether the at least one second company has a second predetermined privacy score higher than the first score; and responsive to determining that the second predetermined privacy score of the at least one second company is higher than the first privacy score, display to the user identification of the at least one second company in conjunction with the recommendation to use at least one of the displayed at least one second companies instead of the first company comprising a selection link to visit the website of the at least one of the displayed at least one second companies.

“2. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the one or more processors is configured to access a record of predetermined privacy scores for a plurality of companies in order to access the predetermined privacy score for the first company.

“3. The system of claim 1, wherein the display of identifying information of the first company, the at least one second company, and the recommendation, includes a pop-up window.

“4. The system of claim 1, wherein the display of identification of the at least one second company includes display of the second privacy score for the at least one second company.

“5. The system of claim 1, wherein the display of identification of the at least one second company includes a selectable option to navigate to a website of the at least one second company.

“6. A method for recommending at least one second company over a first company based on a privacy score comparison between the second company and the first company comprising: receiving indication that a user has directed a web browser to a uniform resource locator of a website of the first company; determining, based on the uniform resource locator, at least one product or service provided by the first company; accessing a first predetermined privacy score determined for the first company; responsive to determining the at least one product or service, determine the at least one second company based on the at least one second company also providing the determined at least one product or service; displaying identifying in formation of the first company, including the first predetermined privacy score; determining whether the at least one second company has a second predetermined privacy score higher than the first score; and responsive to determining that the second predetermined privacy score of the at least one second company is higher than the first privacy score, displaying to the user identification of the at least one second company in conjunction with the recommendation to use at least one of the displayed at least one second companies instead of the first company comprising a selection link to visit the website of the at least one of the displayed at least one second companies.

“7. The method of claim 6, further comprising accessing a record of predetermined privacy scores for a plurality of companies in order to access the predetermined privacy score for the first company.

“8. The method of claim 6, wherein the displaying of identifying information of the first company, the at least one second company, and the recommendation, includes a pop-up window.

“9. The method of claim 6, wherein the displaying identification of the at least one second company includes displaying the second privacy score for the at least one second company.

“10. The method of claim 6, wherein the displaying identification of the at least one second company includes a selectable option to navigate to a website of the at least one second company.”

URL and more information on this patent, see: Daftary, Siddharth. Privacy score. U.S. Patent Number 11816232, filed January 12, 2022, and published online on November 14, 2023. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(11816232)&db=USPAT&type=ids

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