Patent Issued for Systems and methods for providing an integrated identifier (USPTO 11769112): Experian Marketing Solutions LLC

2023 OCT 13 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Experian Marketing Solutions LLC (Schaumburg, Illinois, United States) has been issued patent number 11769112, according to news reporting originating out of Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx editors.

The patent’s inventors are 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).

This patent was filed on June 4, 2021 and was published online on September 26, 2023.

From the background information supplied by the inventors, news correspondents obtained the following quote:

“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.”

Supplementing the background information on this patent, NewsRx reporters 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 computer-executable method comprising: receiving, by a computing system including one or more computer processors, an integrated data identifier associated with 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; 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 data items with different permission levels; accessing, by the computing system, one or more first data items corresponding to the entity in a first data store; accessing, by the computing system, one or more second data items corresponding to the entity in a second data store; 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 a first access rights and without the first data identifier; and the one or more second data items of the entity from the second data store according to a second access rights and without the second data identifier.

“2. The computer-executable method of claim 1, wherein the first data store and the second data store are different.

“3. The computer-executable method of claim 1 further comprising: identifying, by the computing system, the first data identifier and the second data identifier based on the received integrated data identifier.

“4. The computer-executable method of claim 3, wherein the first data identifier and the second data identifier are identified based on the applied one or more reconciliation rules.

“5. The computer-executable method of claim 1, wherein the first data store is associated with a first permission level, and wherein the second data store is associated with a second permission level, and wherein the first permission level is different from the second permission level.

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

“7. The computer-executable method of claim 6, wherein the one or more second data items comprise unregulated data items that are not subject to regulations on access.

“8. The computer-executable method of claim 1, wherein the first access rights are associated with the one or more first data items, wherein the second access rights are associated with the one or more second data items, and wherein the first access rights are different from the second access rights.

“9. The computer-executable method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first access rights and the second access rights include legal restrictions restricting linkage of the one or more first data items with the one or more second data items.

“10. The computer-executable method of claim 1, wherein the entity comprises a person.

“11. The computer-executable method of claim 1, wherein the entity comprises a business.

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

“13. A system comprising: a processing unit; a memory in electronic communication with the processing unit; computer-executable instructions stored in the memory, wherein the computer-executable instructions, when executed by the processing unit, cause the processing unit to: receive an integrated data identifier associated with 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; 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 data items with different permission levels; access one or more first data items corresponding to the entity in a first data store; access one or more second data items corresponding to the entity in a second data store; and transmit 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 a first access rights and without the first data identifier; and the one or more second data items of the entity from the second data store according to a second access rights and without the second data identifier.

“14. A computer-executable method for updating user data in databases, the computer-executable method comprising: receiving, by a computing system including one or more computer processors, a request from a data user for data items associated with a second database associated with an entity, the request comprising one or more first data items associated with a first database associated with the entity; determining an integrated data identifier for the entity; linking the integrated data identifier with a first data identifier and a second data identifier, wherein the first data identifier is associated with the first database, and wherein the second data identifier is associated with a second database; based at least in part on the one or more first data items and the integrated data identifier, accessing, from the second database, one or more second data items associated with the entity; transmitting the one or more second data items to the data user; receiving, from the data user, updated information generated based at least in part on the one or more second data items, the updated information comprising a new first data item and a new second data item; associating the integrated data identifier with the new first data item and the new second data item by linking the new first data item and the new second data item with the integrated data identifier.

“15. The computer-executable method of claim 14, wherein the integrated data identifier provides the data user access to the new first data item without using the first data identifier and the new second data item without using the second data identifier.

“16. The computer-executable method of claim 13, wherein the first data store is associated with a first permission level, and wherein the second data store is associated with a second permission level, and wherein the first permission level is different from the second permission level.

“17. The computer-executable method of claim 14, wherein the one or more first data items comprise unregulated data items that are not subject to regulations on access.

“18. The computer-executable method of claim 17, wherein the one or more second data items comprise regulated data items that are subject to regulations on access.

“19. The computer-executable method of claim 14, wherein the entity comprises a person.

“20. The computer-executable method of claim 14, wherein the entity comprises a business.”

For the URL and additional information on this patent, see: Kress, Anita. Systems and methods for providing an integrated identifier. U.S. Patent Number 11769112, filed June 4, 2021, and published online on September 26, 2023. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(11769112)&db=USPAT&type=ids

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