Patent Issued for Systems and methods for providing an integrated identifier (USPTO 11157872): Experian Marketing Solutions LLC

2021 NOV 11 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- A patent by the inventors Kress, Anita (Santa Ana, CA, US), McMillan, Helen (San Clemente, CA, US), McVey, Michael Charles (Mission Viejo, CA, US), Skurtovich, John Lawrence (Anaheim, CA, US), Sumida, Timothy (Yorba Linda, CA, US), filed on August 2, 2018, was published online on October 26, 2021, according to news reporting originating from Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx correspondents.

Patent number 11157872 is assigned to Experian Marketing Solutions LLC (Schaumburg, Illinois, United States).

The following quote was obtained by the news editors from the background information supplied by the inventors:

“Field of the Invention

“This disclosure generally relates to data processing, and more particularly to methods and systems for providing an integrated identifier for accessing differently regulated data.

“Description of the Related Art

“In the United States, the use of personal, credit, and financial data of consumers is regulated by at least the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLB). For example, under the FCRA, credit data may be used under certain permissible purposes, such as for account review purposes when a consumer already has an established account with a financial institution. In the healthcare field, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) governs the use of patient data. Organizations often need to manage customer or patient data including different types of data governed by different legal requirements, and thus face the challenge of complying with those requirements in the management of differently regulated data. The different legal requirements often lead to the use of parallel and sometimes duplicative data management systems and methods that increase the transfer of private or sensitive data across systems and networks. Besides increasing costs, the increased transfer also leads to increased security risks and exposes those organizations to liability for data privacy breaches.”

In addition to the background information obtained for this patent, NewsRx journalists also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “Embodiments described herein provide data management systems and methods for accessing, providing, and/or managing differently regulated data. The data management systems and methods may streamline the mechanism by which data users access both regulated and non-regulated data through the use of one or more integrated identifiers. An identifier may be an alphanumeric string and/or a database record key. It may be encrypted or in clear text. In one or more embodiments an identifier does not contain any personally identifiable information. Other embodiments include systems and methods that allow for the integration of a Customer Data Integration (CDI) solution with an account review service through the use of one or more integrated identifiers.

“In one embodiment, the integrated identifiers are managed by a reconciliation system that (1) reconciles various identifiers in use in regulated and non-regulated data sources into the single integrated identifiers and (2) resolve the integrated identifiers and translate them back to the various identifiers for accessing regulated and non-regulated data sources. The reconciliation and resolution logic takes into account the potential mismatches in the data records concerning the same individual consumers or businesses, including the various possibilities when there is not a one-to-one correspondence. The reconciliation system accomplishes its tasks while maintaining compliance with various legal requirements concerning regulated data. Therefore, the systems and methods may lessen or eliminate the need to separately maintain one set of identifiers for regulated data and another set for non-regulated data. The methods and systems may be applicable in various credit and healthcare contexts where regulations over data use are prevalent.

“In one embodiment, a data user receives a unique integrated data identifier for each of the data user’s current or prospective customers, which may be individual consumers or businesses. The integrated data identifiers can be used by the data user to persistently identify and track the customers over time and across software applications. The integrated data identifier can also be accurately and consistently translated within a data provider (such as a credit bureau) to link and deliver corresponding consumer and business data within the varying asset databases and services maintained by the data provider. In the healthcare context, a healthcare provider or an insurer may utilize a patient ID as the integrated identifier. In one or more embodiments, to protect privacy, the integrated identifier does not include personal information such as social security numbers or birthdates.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A method comprising: receiving, by a computing system including one or more computer processors, an integrated data identifier specific to an entity from a data user, wherein the integrated data identifier is linked to a first data identifier and a second data identifier associated with the entity, wherein the data user and the entity are different; applying one or more reconciliation rules to reconcile the integrated data identifier with the first data identifier and the integrated data identifier with the second data identifier, wherein the one or more reconciliation rules account for correspondence between regulated and unregulated data items; identifying, by the computing system, the first data identifier and the second data identifier based on the received integrated data identifier and the applied one or more reconciliation rules; accessing, by the computing system, one or more first data items corresponding to the entity in a first data store using the first data identifier; accessing, by the computing system, one or more second data items corresponding to the entity in a second data store using the second data identifier, wherein the one or more first data items are associated with first access rights different than second access rights associated with the one or more second data items; and transmitting the one or more first data items and the one or more second data items to the data user; wherein the integrated data identifier provides the data user with access to: the one or more first data items of the entity from the first data store according to the first access rights and without the data user using the first data identifier; and the one or more second data items of the entity from the second data store according to the second access rights, without the data user using the second data identifier, wherein the first data store and the second data store are different.

“2. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first access rights and the second access rights include legal restrictions forbidding linkage of the one or more first data items in direct association with the one or more second data items.

“3. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more first data items comprise credit data items and the second data items comprise marketing data items.

“4. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more first data items comprise the regulated data items that are subject to regulations on access.

“5. The method of claim 4, wherein the one or more second data items comprise the unregulated data items that are not subject to regulations on access.

“6. The method of claim 1, wherein the entity comprises a person.

“7. The method of claim 1, wherein the entity comprises a business.

“8. The method of claim 1, wherein the first data identifier each associated with the entity comprises a first data identifier associated with a business and the second data identifier each associated with the entity comprises a second data identifier associated with an individual.

“9. The method of claim 1, wherein the integrated data identifier does not include personally identifiable information of the entity.

“10. The method of claim 1, wherein the integrated data identifier comprises a medical record number of the entity.

“11. A system for providing integrated identifiers comprising: a computing device in communication with a first data store of a first third party entity storing a first data identifier associated with respective one or more first data items of respective entities and a second data store of a second third party entity storing a second data identifier associated with respective one or more second data items of respective entities, wherein the one or more first data items are subject to different access rights than the one or more second data items, and the first data store is a separate and distinct data store from the second data store, the computing device comprising an integrated identifier module configured to: receive an integrated data identifier specific to an entity from a data user, wherein the integrated data identifier is linked to a first data identifier and a second data identifier associated with the entity, wherein the data user and the entity are different; apply one or more reconciliation rules to reconcile the integrated data identifier with the first data identifier and the integrated data identifier with the second data identifier, wherein the one or more reconciliation rules account for correspondence between regulated and unregulated data items; identify the first data identifier and the second data identifier based on the received integrated data identifier and the applied one or more reconciliation rules; access one or more first data items corresponding to the entity in a first data store using the first data identifier; accessing one or more second data items corresponding to the entity in a second data store using the second data identifier, wherein the one or more first data items are associated with first access rights different than second access rights associated with the one or more second data items; and transmitting the one or more first data items and the one or more second data items to the data user, wherein the integrated data identifier provides the data user access to: the one or more first data items of the entity according to first access rights; and the one or more second data items of the entity according to second access rights, wherein the integrated data identifier provides the data user access without using the first data identifier or the second data identifier.

“12. The system of claim 11, wherein the one or more first data items comprise the regulated data and the one or more second data items comprise the unregulated data records.

“13. The system of claim 11, wherein the one or more first data items comprise credit data items and the one or more second data items comprise non-credit data items.

“14. The system of claim 11, wherein at least one of the first access rights and the second access rights include legal restrictions forbidding linkage of the one or more first data items in direct association with the one or more second data items.

“15. The system of claim 11, wherein the one or more first data items comprise credit data items and the one or more second data items comprise marketing data items.

“16. The system of claim 11, wherein the one or more first data items comprise data items that are subject to regulations on access.

“17. The system of claim 16, wherein the one or more second data items comprise data items that are not subject to regulations on access.

“18. The system of claim 11, wherein the entity comprises a person.

“19. The system of claim 11, wherein the entity comprises a business.”

URL and more information on this patent, see: Kress, Anita. Systems and methods for providing an integrated identifier. U.S. Patent Number 11157872, filed August 2, 2018, and published online on October 26, 2021. Patent URL: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=11157872.PN.&OS=PN/11157872RS=PN/11157872

(Our reports deliver fact-based news of research and discoveries from around the world.)