Nokia Corporation

Tero Alamäki

Marko Vänskä

Ian Nordman

Mikko Tapani Tarkiainen

Casper Gripenberg

Norbert Gyorbíró

Norbert Gyorbiró

Norbert Gyorbiro

A system and method manages and enforces user privacy of user data in a network environment in various manners. The system and method can determine a context for interaction with a party, filter user data to be provided to the party based on the determined context, and transmit the filtered user data to the party. The system and method can further determine an anonymity level at which interaction with the party is to be conducted, and interact with the party at the determined anonymity level. Additionally, to enforce user privacy, a privacy enforcement system can be employed at the receiving party and a trusted supervising authority can be utilized to supervise the access of user data received by the receiving party as well as to provide third party certification.

Method and apparatus for managing and enforcing user privacy

The user's Bluetooth device substitutes a pseudonym address for the Bluetooth Device Address (BD_ADDR). The pseudonym address is a randomized version of the BD_ADDR. The pseudonym address is used in all the functions of the Bluetooth device that normally use the BD_ADDR, including the frequency hopping sequence, the device access code, the initialization key in link encryption, the authentication code, and the various packet addresses. In this manner, the user's privacy is protected by preventing the user's identity, routes, and activities from being correlated with his/her device's address. In addition to the Bluetooth standard, the technique also applies to other wireless standards.

Method for protecting privacy when using a Bluetooth device

Growing community of inventors

Helsinki, Finland

Tero Alamäki