Researchers Submit Patent Application, “Safe Logon”, for Approval (USPTO 20220060466): Allstate Insurance Company

2022 MAR 14 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- From Washington, D.C., NewsRx journalists report that a patent application by the inventors De Guia, Nicolette (Chicago, IL, US); Hansen, Mark D. (Greensboro, NC, US); Harris, David (Wheaton, IL, US); Parkinson, John (Burlington, VT, US), filed on November 4, 2021, was made available online on February 24, 2022.

The patent’s assignee is Allstate Insurance Company (Northbrook, Illinois, United States).

News editors obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Protecting confidential information in today’s online environment is difficult due to the increased connectivity and the increased number of user accounts accessible via web enabled computing devices. Creating mutual trust between a user and a vendor through use of a website or mobile application requires that the user trust the operating policies and data use and sharing practices of the site or application and the site trusts the user’s identity. This is challenging in the digital dimension, when the two entities may never meet and must depend on an exchange of information, third party verification services, and multi-factor authentication mechanisms.

“Current methods and systems of authenticating users may expose a user’s credentials or use arbitrary credentialing semantics which are not preferred by vendors. These existing methods and systems for exchanging information between users and vendors introduce friction into the process of using a vendor’s website or mobile application for purchases through third party verification services.

“Therefore, there is a desire for a system that implements a more convenient mechanism to identify trusted sites combined with a mechanism to reliably confirm a user’s identity that establishes and enhances mutual trust while reducing friction.”

As a supplement to the background information on this patent application, NewsRx correspondents also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent application: “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 to perform a trusted online transaction between a user and a vendor. A user can trust that a site using the safe logon button is a trusted site that has been verified and audited to ensure that its policies and practices meet minimum standards for privacy, data sharing, and compliance. A vendor can trust that the system has verified the identity of the user.

“In addition, the system compares a user’s privacy preference with a privacy policy of a vendor and, in some embodiments, to recommend alternative vendors having privacy policies more closely matching the user’s privacy preferences. The recommended alternative vendors may be output for display to the user along with indications of various qualities of the vendors’ privacy policies, and indications of how, or if, those qualities conform to, or lack conformance with, the user’s privacy preferences. The described cyber-security system may help a user avoid interacting with vendors having privacy policies that don’t match the user’s preferences, and may help the user find other vendors whose privacy policies more closely match their privacy preferences.

“Of course, the methods and systems of the above-referenced embodiments may also include other additional elements, steps, computer-executable instructions, or computer-readable data structures. In this regard, other embodiments are disclosed and claimed herein as well. The details of these and other embodiments of the present invention are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the description below. Other features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the description, drawings, and claims.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. An apparatus, comprising: one or more processors configured to: receive a login request, resulting from activation of a login button displayed on a requesting site, to perform a transaction between a user and the requesting site; verify an identity of the user of the transaction, including confirming that at least a required number of authentication factors are predefined in a verified user profile; generate an encrypted token including verification information resulting from the verification of the identity of the user; determine whether the requesting site is a trusted site; and based on both the trusted site determination and the identity verification of the user, transmit the generated token to the requesting site.

“2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to communicate with the requesting site to obtain requirements defining at least the required number of authentication factors.

“3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the verification of the identity includes verifying the presence of user credentials, predefined in the verified user profile, of at least a type required by the requesting site based on the requirements obtained via the communication.

“4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to prompt the user for at least one type of credential, required by the requesting site, responsive to at least one type of credential not being included in the verified user profile.

“5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to prompt the user for additional credentials, up to at least the required number of authentication factors, responsive to the required number of credentials included in the verified user profile being less than the required authentication factors.

“6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the credentials include user biometrics.

“7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the credentials include user personal information.

“8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the credentials include accumulated user reputation, accumulated through successful prior transactions.

“9. A method comprising: receiving a login request, resulting from activation of a login button displayed on a requesting site, to perform a transaction between a user and the requesting site; verifying an identity of the user of the transaction, including confirming that at least authentication factors of one or more required types are predefined in a verified user profile; and generating an encrypted token including verification information resulting from the verification of the identity of the user.

“10. The method of claim 9, further comprising communicating with the requesting site to obtain requirements further defining a required number of authentication factors.

“11. The method of claim 10, wherein the one or more required types are required by the requesting site and indicated in the requirements obtained via the communication.

“12. The method of claim 11, further comprising prompting the user for at least one type of credential, required by the requesting site, responsive to at least one type of credential not being included in the verified user profile.

“13. The method of claim 10, further comprising prompting the user for additional credentials, up to at least the required number of authentication factors, responsive to the required number of credentials included in the verified user profile being less than the required authentication factors.

“14. The method of claim 9, wherein the credentials include user biometrics.

“15. The method of claim 9, wherein the credentials include user personal information.

“16. The method of claim 9, wherein the credentials include accumulated user reputation, accumulated through successful prior transactions.

“17. A method comprising: receiving a login request, resulting from activation of a login button displayed on a requesting site, to perform a transaction between a user and the requesting site; verifying an identity of the user of the transaction, including confirming that at least a required number of authentication factors of one or more required types are predefined in a verified user profile, the required number and required types defined by the requesting site; and generating an encrypted token including verification information resulting from the verification of the identity of the user.

“18. The method of claim 17, wherein at least one of the required number and required types are obtained via communication with the requesting site.

“19. The method of claim 17, further comprising: prompting the user for at least one type of credential, required by the requesting site, responsive to at least one type of credential not being included in the verified user profile; and prompting the user for additional credentials, up to at least the required number of authentication factors, responsive to the required number of credentials included in the verified user profile being less than the required authentication factors.

“20. The method of claim 17, wherein the credentials include at least one of user biometrics, user personal information, or accumulated user reputation, accumulated through successful prior transactions.”

For additional information on this patent application, see: De Guia, Nicolette; Hansen, Mark D.; Harris, David; Parkinson, John. Safe Logon. Filed November 4, 2021 and posted February 24, 2022. Patent URL: https://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=%2220220060466%22.PGNR.&OS=DN/20220060466&RS=DN/20220060466

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