Storage and maintenance of personal data

[0001] This application claims priority from provisional U.S. Pat. App. No. 61/643,504, filed on May 7, 2012, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.

[0002] A person's wallet is a valuable item that provides a single location for many items that are typically needed on a day-to-day basis. A wallet may contain items of financial value, such as cash, credit cards and other payment instruments. A wallet may also include personal information, such as identification cards, personal photos, and health insurance information. In addition, a wallet may contain information about relationships with merchants, such as shopping loyalty cards and coupons.

[0003] Unfortunately, in order to hold all of the aforementioned items, a physical wallet typically contains numerous separate cards, which may be bulky or difficult to carry. Also, losing a wallet may result in significant inconvenience and expense. Existing digital replacements for wallets tend to be idiosyncratic and geared toward only one or a small number of products, making such replacements generally inadequate.

[0004] In general, an electronic personal data locker system is described in which personal data is stored, organized, accessed, and/or maintained, among others activities. In an embodiment, the personal data locker system comprises multiple personal data lockers that each store different types of personal information and/or data of a user. The personal data lockers are established by the personal data locker system and may be integrated with mobile devices and/or computing environments (such as a hosted computing environment). In an embodiment, the personal data locker system may automatically identify and acquire personal data for storage in the personal data lockers. Personal data may be acquired from a user and/or third parties having information about the user. The personal data locker system may enable the sharing of the gathered data with third parties and/or may enable the user to set preferences for what data is to be shared with various third parties.

[0005] In an embodiment, the personal data locker system may further provide convenience in providing personal data to third parties via a standard application programming interface (API) and/or a standard application programming language. The API may further enable third parties to automatically register and update accounts associated with the user by accessing personal data stored in the personal data locker system. The personal data locker system may further provide for security for the user by keeping records of access to the user's data stored in the personal data lockers, and allowing the user to see what data is being shared. Further, the personal data locker system may enable the finding and/or calculating of user-related insights based on the gathered data through correlation, aggregation, and/or analysis of the user's personal data. The user-related insights may comprise, for example, new facts about the user.

[0006] In an embodiment, a computer-implemented method of providing third-party access to personal data stored in an electronic data locker is disclosed. The method comprises: under control of one or more computing devices configured with specific computer executable instructions, providing an electronic data locker, the electronic data locker configured to store personal data associated with a user and to be accessible over a computer network; receiving, from the user, an indication of particular items and/or types of personal data to be stored in the electronic data locker; storing, the electronic data locker, the indicated particular items and/or types of personal data; receiving, from the user, a third-party authorization that authorizes a third-party to access the electronic data locker for a particular purpose; providing, to the user, a unique identifier that is associated with the user and that may be provided to one or more third-parties; receiving, from the third-party, over the computer network, a request to access personal data associated with the user from the electronic data locker, wherein the request includes the unique identifier and an indicated purpose for the request; comparing the indicated purpose to the particular purpose; retrieving, when the indicated purpose and the particular purpose match, the particular items and/or types of personal data from the electronic data locker; transmitting the retrieved items and/or types of personal data to the third-party over the computer network; and logging access data associated with the request.

[0007] In another embodiment, a computer-implemented method of providing third-party access to personal data stored in electronic data lockers is disclosed. The method comprises: under control of one or more computing devices configured with specific computer executable instructions, providing one or more electronic personal data lockers, each of said one or more electronic personal data lockers configured to store a particular type of personal data associated with a user, and each of said one or more electronic personal data lockers configured to be accessible over a computer network; receiving, from a third-party, over the computer network, a first request to access personal data associated with the user stored in at least one of the one or more electronic personal data lockers, wherein the first request includes a purpose for the first request; authenticating the third-party request, wherein authenticating comprises: identifying the third-party; and verifying the user has authorized the first request; retrieving the requested personal data from the at least one electronic personal data lockers; transmitting the retrieved personal data to the third-party over the computer network; and logging access data associated with the first request.

[0008] According to an aspect, verifying the user has authorized the request comprises: under control of the one or more computing devices configured with specific computer executable instructions, receiving from the user an allowable purpose for the first request; providing to the user an internet ID associated with the first request; allowing the user to provide the internet ID to the third-party; receiving from the third-party the internet ID; determining that the allowable purpose matches the purpose included with the first request.

[0009] According to another aspect, the purpose includes at least one of enrollment, eligibility, registration; ad targeting; loyalty point calculations; and social-networking activities.

[0010] According to yet another aspect, the computer-implemented method further comprises: under control of the one or more computing devices configured with specific computer executable instructions, receiving a second request, from the third-party, over the computer network, to access the personal data associated with the user stored in the at least one electronic personal data locker associated with the first request; determining whether the user has revoked authorization associated with the first request; providing the requested personal data to the third-party when the user has not revoked authorization associated with the first request.

[0011] According to another aspect, the access data comprises at least one of the identity of the third-party, the date and time the requested personal data was retrieved, the personal data that was requested, the particular type associated with the at least one personal data locker, and the purpose for the request.

[0012] According to yet another aspect, the computer-implemented method further comprises: under control of the one or more computing devices configured with specific computer executable instructions, providing an interface configured to display the access data to the user and receive input from the user, wherein the interface allows the user to revoke authorization associated with the first request.

[0013] According to another aspect, the particular type of personal data comprises at least one of social media data, health data, professional data, credit data, and banking data.

[0014] According to yet another aspect, the user authorizes the first request via at least one of a software key, a software token, authentication data, identity data, a username and password, an encryption key, a digital signature, a hardware key, a hardware token, and a mobile device associated with the user.

[0015] In yet another embodiment, a computer system is disclosed which comprises: one or more hardware processors in communication with a computer readable medium storing software modules including instructions that are executable by the one or more hardware processors, the software modules including at least: a data collection computer module configured to obtain electronic personal data transmitted over a computer network and store the electronic personal data in one or more electronic personal data lockers, wherein the electronic personal data is associated with a user; a data organization computer module configured to organize the electronic personal data stored in the one or more electronic personal data lockers such that each of the one or more electronic personal data lockers stores a particular type of electronic personal data; an identity service computer module configured to receive over the computer network, from a third-party application, an electronic identification token associated with the user and to identify the user based at least in part on the electronic identification token; and a request fulfillment computer module configured to receive a request over the computer network, from the third-party, for personal data associated with the identified user stored in at least one of the electronic personal data lockers, and to provide the requested data to the third-party.

[0016] According to an aspect, the identity service computer module and the request fulfillment computer module comprise an application programming interface (API).

[0017] According to yet another aspect, the identity service computer module is further configured to identify and authenticate the identity of the third-party.

[0018] According to another aspect, the electronic identification token comprises at least one of a software key, a software token, authentication data, identity data, a username and password, an encryption key, a digital signature, a hardware key, a hardware token, and a mobile device associated with the user.

[0019] According to yet another aspect, the one or more electronic data lockers store personal data including at least one of social media data, health data, professional data, credit data, and banking data.

[0020] In another embodiment, a computer-implemented method of determining insights about a user based on electronic personal data is described. The computer-implemented method comprises: as implemented by one or more computer systems comprising computer hardware and memory, the one or more computer systems configured with specific executable instructions, providing, to an electronic data store, authorization credentials so as to authorize access to electronic personal data associated with a user; retrieving, from the electronic data store, a first type of electronic personal data associated with a user, the first type of electronic personal data stored in a first electronic personal data locker, wherein the first electronic personal data locker is stored in the electronic data store; retrieving, from the electronic data store, a second type of electronic personal data associated with the user, the second type of electronic personal data stored in a second electronic personal data locker, wherein the second electronic personal data locker is stored in the electronic data store; combining, with a processor, at least one item of data from the first type of electronic personal data with at least one item of data from the second type of electronic personal data; and determining, with a processor, an insight about the user based at least in part on the combined at least one item of data from the first type of electronic personal data and at least one item of data from the second type of electronic personal data.

[0021] According to an aspect, combining comprises at least one of: correlating and applying a mathematical formula.

[0022] According to another aspect, the computer-implemented method further comprises: generating a report based at least in part on the determined insight; and presenting the generated report to the user on an electronic device.

[0023] According to yet another aspect, the report comprises at least one of a visualization, a graph, a trend, and a total.

[0024] In yet another embodiment, a non-transitory computer storage having stored thereon a computer program is disclosed that instructs a computer system to provide third-party access to personal data stored in electronic data lockers by at least: providing one or more electronic personal data lockers, each of said one or more electronic personal data lockers configured to store a particular type of personal data associated with a user, and each of said one or more electronic personal data lockers configured to be accessible over a computer network; receiving, from a third-party, over the computer network, a first request to access personal data associated with the user stored in at least one of the one or more electronic personal data lockers, wherein the first request includes a purpose for the first request; authenticating the third-party request, wherein authenticating comprises: identifying the third-party; and verifying the user has authorized the first request; retrieving the requested personal data from the at least one electronic personal data locker; transmitting the retrieved personal data to the third-party over the computer network; and logging access data associated with the first request.

[0025] According to an aspect, the non-transitory computer storage further includes: receiving a second request, from the third-party, over the computer network, to access the personal data associated with the user stored in the at least one electronic personal data locker associated with the first request; determining whether the user has revoked authorization associated with the first request; providing the requested personal data to the third-party when the user has not revoked authorization associated with the first request.

[0026] According to another aspect, the access data comprises at least one of the identity of the third-party, the date and time the requested personal data was retrieved, the personal data that was requested, the particular type associated with the at least one personal data locker, and the purpose for the request.

[0027] According to yet another aspect, the non-transitory computer storage of, further comprises: providing an interface configured to display the access data to the user and receive input from the user, wherein the interface allows the user to revoke authorization associated with the first request.

[0041] Embodiments of the disclosure will now be described with reference to the accompanying figures, wherein like numerals refer to like elements throughout. The terminology used in the description presented herein is not intended to be interpreted in any limited or restrictive manner, simply because it is being utilized in conjunction with a detailed description of certain specific embodiments of the disclosure. Furthermore, embodiments of the disclosure may include several novel features, no single one of which is solely responsible for its desirable attributes or which is essential to practicing the embodiments of the disclosure herein described.

[0042] FIG. 1 is an illustrative block diagram of an embodiment of the personal data locker system. FIG. 1 shows several conceptual layers of the system, including layers 101, 103, 104, 105, and 107. In an embodiment, each layer of the personal data locker system may communicate with the layer above and/or the layer below. In alternate embodiments, layers may communicate with other layers and may be ordered differently than shown in FIG. 1. Each layer may be included on the same electronic device as other layers, or on different electronic devices in communication with each other. The various layers may be implemented on a computing system comprising one or more computing devices, each of which may include computing hardware, such as processors, memory, computer-readable storage, network interfaces, and the like. An exemplary computer system on which the personal data locker system may be implemented is described in detail in reference to FIG. 12 below.

[0043] In the embodiment of FIG. 1, layer 101 includes user interfaces that may communicate with one or more users. These user interfaces may communicate with users directly, as in the case of a graphical display, and/or they may communicate through a network or other means of communication, such as items 102, including, for example, a browser, a mobile device, and/or an embedded device, among others. The user interfaces may take on any number of forms, including, for example, graphical applications, mobile device applications, web pages, telephonic interfaces, and the like.

[0044] Layer 103 includes an operating system, one or more applications and/or one or more plug-ins. The components of layer 103 may generate data that is displayed or otherwise communicated to the user interfaces of layer 101. Within layer 103, some of the components, such as the operating system components and/or the plug-in components, may be provided with the personal data locker system, while other components, such as the applications, may be acquired from third parties or other entities. Thus, in some embodiments the personal data locker system may be extensible and augmented by third-party developers.

[0045] Layer 104 includes an application programming interface (API). The application programming interface provides the basis on which the various components of layer 103 may send and/or receive data. For example, an application within layer 103 may access data provided by the personal data locker system via the application programming interface. Thus, the application programming interface may provide various applications access to a user's personal data lockers. In an embodiment, the application programming interface only allows authorized application to access a user's personal data.

[0046] Layer 105 includes components for security, logging, and/or notification. Layer 105 communicates with the application programming interface of layer 104 to transfer data to and from the personal data lockers in an authorized and secure manner. The security routines conducted within layer 105 may be entirely internal to the personal data locker system, or they may communicate with an external authentication and/or authorization system 106. Thus, in an embodiment, the layer 105 may include an identity authorization service (such as a credit bureau) and/or a third-party authorization service (possibly operated by a credit bureau or other entity).

[0047] Layer 107 includes the actual personal data lockers and data gathering routines used by the personal data locker system. Layer 107 may communicate with the security, logging, and/or notification components of layer 105 to send and receive the personal data that is stored in the personal data lockers and used by the layers above. The data gathering components may gather their data internally from within the personal data locker system, or they may gather data from external sources 108. Examples of external data sources may include third parties, such as social networks, financial or banking services, health databases, public records, and the like.

[0048] Each of the layers of the personal data locker system described in reference to FIG. 1 may be implemented in one or more computing devices, as is described in reference to FIG. 12 below.

[0049] FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating services, such as third-party services, that may interface with personal data lockers of the personal data locker system, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. Third party services may interface with the personal data lockers of the personal data locker system through the various layers described in reference to FIG. 1. A third party service interfaces with the personal data locker system in order to, for example, access data in the user's personal data lockers and/or to provide data for storage in the user's personal data lockers. In various embodiments, additional blocks may be included, some blocks may be removed, and/or blocks may be connected or arranged differently from what is shown in FIG. 2.

[0050] Third-party service 201 may be, for example, a retailer, whether an online retailer or a brick-and-mortar retailer. Each third-party service may be associated with a group within the personal data locker system. Groups with which a third-party service may be associated may include, for example, friends, family, banking institutions, credit institutions, health institutions, and the like. In certain embodiments, the groups with which third-party services may be associated may be defined by the third party. In other embodiments, the groups may be defined by the user, or they may be predefined by the personal data locker system.

[0051] The third-party service 201 may be enabled to communicate with various other components via application programming interfaces, web protocols, and/or code fragments installed on the third-party service. For example, identity service interface 202 may enable the third-party service 201 to communicate with an identity service 203. The identity service 203 may be an authentication service or other service that is able to identify and/or provide identifying information of a user. The identity service 203 may identify the user based on a token provided by the user, such as user identification token 207. Such a token may be, for example, authentication data, identity data, a user name and password, an encryption key, a digital signature, a hardware key or token, a mobile device associated with the user, and so on.

[0052] The third-party service 201 may further include a data portal interface 204 enabling the third-party service to communicate with a data portal 205. The data portal interface 204 may further use a user identification token or other component to identify the user whose data is being requested. The data portal interface 204 may be configured to provide information based on the user identification token and/or other identifying information about the user and/or third-party service 201 to the data portal 205.

[0053] Data portal 205 may be an external server or service, such as a web server. Data portal 205 may alternately be a personal electronic device, such as a mobile phone, that includes relevant personal data from the personal data lockers 206. Thus, data portal 205 may further communicate with one or more personal data lockers 206 in order to retrieve personal information regarding a user. In this way, data portal 205 may be enabled to provide personal data from the personal data lockers 206 to the third-party service 201 via the data portal interface 204. As described above, access to the personal data lockers 206 may be accomplished through the layers of the personal data locker system as described above with references to FIG. 1.

[0054] FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating example personal data lockers, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. Personal data lockers 301 may include data from various data stores internal and/or external to the personal data locker system. In the embodiment of FIG. 3, the personal data lockers include social media data locker 302, health data locker 303, professional data locker 304, credit data locker 305, and banking data locker 306. Additional and/or different data lockers storing additional and/or different forms of data may be used in other embodiments of the personal data locker system. In various embodiments, personal data may be categorized differently within a personal data locker than is shown in FIG. 3. In various embodiments, additional blocks may be included, some blocks may be removed, and/or blocks may be connected or arranged differently from what is shown.

[0055] In one embodiment, the personal data lockers illustrated in FIG. 3 may be part of the personal data lockers 107 of FIG. 1, which are part of a personal data locker system. In this embodiment, the personal data lockers may be stored on one or more secured network devices in a hosted computing environment. The hosted computing environment may include one or more rapidly provisioned and released computing resources, which computing resources may include computing, networking and/or storage devices. A hosted computing environment may also be referred to as a cloud computing environment. The data may or may not be encrypted based on security preferences of the system and the users of that system. Furthermore, data may be stored in multiple personal data lockers rather than in a single personal data locker, in an embodiment. Additionally, in an embodiment, the personal data locker may not store data relating to a user, but may rather include pointers and/or references to data. For example, rather than storing a user's social media data, a personal data locker may simply include a reference to the appropriate location of that social media data on an external system.

[0056] FIG. 4 is a flow diagram depicting an illustrative operation of the personal data locker system, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. In various embodiments, additional blocks may be included, some blocks may be removed, and/or blocks may be connected or arranged differently from what is shown in FIG. 4.

[0057] At block 401, the personal data locker system identifies one or more data sources from which personal data is to be retrieved. For example, a particular individual may have a personal data locker account with the personal data locker system, and one or more data sources associated with the individual may be identified such that personal data may be retrieved from those data sources and transferred into personal data lockers. The identified data sources may come from a central database or other database of data sources. Such a database may further include methods of acquisition of data from those data sources. For example, data may be acquired by an API or by scraping of web pages provided by external third-party services. Alternately, data may be retrieved directly from a user or from sources selected by a user. At block 402, the system retrieves the data from the sources identified at block 401.

[0058] Examples of data sources from which the personal data locker system may retrieve personal data may include, but are not limited to electronic file sources, social-media data sources, video data sources, audio data sources, photo data sources, action data sources (such as data sources storing exercise data, walking data, movement data, and the like), message data sources (such as data sources storing email, instant messages, and the like), geographic data sources, schedule data sources, textual data sources (such as data sources storing notes, comments, articles, and the like), purchase history data sources, financial or banking data sources, health data sources, professional data sources (such as data sources storing resume data and personal accomplishment data, and the like), weather data source, and/or user reported data sources, among others.

[0059] At block 403, the system stores the data retrieved at block 402 in one or more personal data lockers associated with the user. The data may be stored in an encrypted form, or otherwise secured to ensure the integrity and/or privacy of the data stored. In an embodiment, the system is further configured to repeat blocks 401 through 403 on a periodic or other basis, such as a daily, weekly, monthly, bi-monthly and/or annual basis, in order to ensure that data in the user's personal data lockers is kept up-to-date.

[0060] At block 404, an application submits a request for data from one or more personal data lockers via an application programming interface provided by the personal data locker system. The request may include various items of information, such as, for example, the identity of the user, an authentication key, other identifying information for the application, and/or the type of data or data elements requested, among others. In an embodiment, the application requests data from the personal data locker system in response to a request for such data from, for example, the user and/or an entity that has rights to access the personal data locker data of the user.

[0061] At block 405, the personal data locker system determines whether or not the application and/or entity that requested the data is authorized to receive the data requested at block 404. If the application is determined to be authorized, then the system provides the requested data to the application. At block 406, the application may then analyze the provided data and/or may present an analysis or other information on a user interface of the personal data locker system, or the analysis may be presented in another form. The analysis may include insights into data (such as visualizations, graphs, trends, totals, combinations, and/or correlations, among others), offers and/or ads based on the data, and/or automatic account registration based on the data. Additional examples of analyses and/or insights that the personal data locker system may provide to the user are described in reference to FIG. 11 below. In an embodiment, the personal data locker system itself, rather than the application, may perform the analysis of personal locker data to determine insights.

[0062] Examples of analyses and/or insights that the personal data locker system may provide to the user may include, but are not limited to visualizations, graphs, trends, totals, combinations, and/or correlations, among others. For example, in an embodiment the system may display a graph to the user indicating the user's growing total expenses throughout the current month. In another example, the system may combine correlate weather data with data regarding the user's walking habits, to determine, for example, that the user tends to walk less of cloudy days. Such an insight may be presented to the user on the user interface as, for example, a statement, a graph, and/or a trend. Further discussion regarding analysis and insights of the personal data locker system is provided below in reference to FIG. 11.

[0063] FIG. 5 is a flow diagram depicting an illustrative operation of the personal data locker system in which personal data is stored in a personal data locker, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. The process of FIG. 5 may be performed, for example, at blocks 401 to 402 of FIG. 4. In various embodiments, additional blocks may be included, some blocks may be removed, and/or blocks may be connected or arranged differently from what is shown in FIG. 5.

[0064] At block 501, the personal data locker system receives information regarding a particular user that wishes to have data acquired for storage in one or more personal data lockers of the user. The information may include, for example, identifying information, such as the user's name, address, Social Security number, telephone number, email address, and/or other information, as may be useful to the system in identifying data for storage in the user's personal data lockers. At block 502, the system searches for data sources that may have information about the user identified at block 501.

[0065] At optional block 503, the system presents the identified data sources from block 502 to the user. Thus, the user may be able to see and/or select particular data sources from which data is to be retrieved. For example, a user may be able to see that data is to be retrieved from a health, social network, banking, personal and/or other source, and possibly disable retrieval of data from one or more of those sources. In an alternate embodiment, the personal data locker automatically retrieves data from all sources, so block 503 may be optional.

[0066] At block 504, the system receives login credentials as necessary to acquire data from the various data sources. For example, if the user wishes to have data retrieved from a social network site, the system may request that the user provide his or her login credentials so that the system may access that social networking site. The system may then proceed to retrieve data from the various data sources identified at block 502 and possibly presented to the user at block 503.

[0067] At optional block 505, the system confirms the personal information retrieved with the user. Such confirmation may be useful, for example, to determine if there are any errors in the personal information retrieved. For example, if there are several individuals with the same name, the system may, at block 505, confirm with the user which personal information corresponds to the actual user, rather than another individual with the same name. In an alternate embodiment, the system automatically uses the retrieved data, without further prompting the user, so block 505 may be optional.

[0068] At block 506, the personal data lockers of the user are populated with the personal data that was retrieved. The data may be stored on one or more computing devices for retrieval by the user and/or third-party applications. As indicated by the arrow 508, in an embodiment, the personal data locker system may periodically update the stored data. Thus, one or more of the block of FIG. 5 may be fully and/or partially performed multiple times for a single user.

[0069] FIG. 6 is an illustrative user interface of the personal data locker system including data sharing settings, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. Users of the personal data locker system may wish to access data sharing settings to control what data is shared, how much data is shared, and with which entities data is to be shared. The embodiment of FIG. 6 is a web page user interface. However, other interfaces, such as a mobile phone application interface, a desktop application interface, a telephonic interface, and/or other interfaces may be used.

[0070] Window 601 includes various settings for controlling data sharing that may be accessed and altered by the user. For example, at section 602, the user may control data sharing with friends. Third parties may be identified as friends, based on the user's input, the input of the third parties, external data, and/or other information. Through the user interface of FIG. 6 the user is able to control the sharing of data with friends at a fine-grain level by selecting types of data to be shared, as shown in element 602. In the example shown, the user has selected to share social media data and professional data with friends, but not to share banking data, health data and credit data with them.

[0071] In an embodiment, the level of detail at which the user may control sharing of data may be customized by the user. For example, element 602 illustrates a breakout of various types/portions of data that may be shared from the user's credit personal data locker. In this example, the user may specify portions of credit data that are shared with friends, such as by selecting a category of credit data to share (e.g., by checking the box next to the data categories) and/or selecting specific data items of a category to share (for example, by expanding a data category and selecting certain data items within the category) in each of the lines of credit, public record, and/or inquiry section. Alternatively, other types of user interface controls may be used to allow the user to select particular pieces of data to share (for example, a credit score), categories (for example, data in the public record section of a credit report), and/or data lockers (for example, all credit data) that may be shared with individual and/or categories of others, among others. FIG. 6 illustrates user interface controls for fine-grained selection of data from the credit personal data locker; however, such fine-grained selection functionality may be available for all of the personal data lockers.

[0072] In an embodiment, the data sharing settings are initially set to preset defaults. These preset defaults may be defined by the user and/or an administrator of the personal data locker system, and may be set to correspond with the general desires of overall users. Furthermore, the preset defaults may be automatically customized based on personal information of the specific user. For example, for a user who tends to be more conservative with privacy settings, the personal data locker may use preset defaults that restrict sharing of data further than most other users.

[0073] Section 603 provides options for sharing data with family members. As can be seen in section 603, the data sharing settings related to family members may be different from the data sharing setting related to friends. For example, social media data is not shared with family, while health data is shared with family. In an embodiment, additional groups may be included for data sharing settings. Those groups may be predefined by the personal data locker system and/or they may be defined by individual users.

[0074] In addition to setting sharing preferences with categories and/or groups of third parties, the user may be able to set sharing settings for individual third parties. For example, in section 604, the user is able to set sharing settings for a particular bank. Such sharing settings may thus override default settings and/or settings for a group to which the individual third party belongs. Thus, a user may be able to share more or less data with a particular third party than the user would generally share with other third parties in the same group.

[0075] FIGS. 7A and 7B are illustrative user interfaces of the personal data locker system including mobile device user interfaces for sharing data with a third party, such as a retailer, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. 7A illustrates a sample user interface that the user may use to allow the retailer to access certain data stored in the user's personal data lockers. In this embodiment, the user is associated with a unique internet identifier (internet ID) that is also associated with the user's personal data locker account. Examples of systems, methods, and processes for associating a user with a profile and/or and identifier are disclosed may be found in at least U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/778,012, filed Feb. 26, 2013, and entitled “Master Profile,” which application is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety and for all purposes. Thus, the user may provide the internet ID to the retailer and allow the retailer to request data associated with that internet ID from the personal data system. In other embodiments, other identification may be provided to entities with which data sharing is desired, such as an email address, a personal data locker ID, among others. In some embodiments, entities that wish to access data in the user's personal data lockers may locate the user's personal data lockers using various search technologies, such as searching a membership list of the personal data locker system using a name, address, and/or phone number of a user. In the embodiment of FIG. 7A, the user has the option of electronically transmitted his internet ID to the retailer via various communication technologies including Bluetooth, Bump, SMS (among other possibilities known to those skilled in the art).

[0076] In an embodiment, when the retailer connects to the user's personal data lockers, the system determines access rights for the retailer, such as based on a category and/or individual rights associated with the retailer. For example, the interface of FIG. 7B illustrates that the particular retailer was granted rights to access data of the user's personal data lockers that is authorized for entities within a “commerce” category. In one embodiment, the personal data locker system automatically determines one or more categories in which a requesting entity should be placed, such as based on information provided by the requesting entity and/or obtained from third party data sources. For example, the retailer may provide a retailer ID, along with the user's ID, to the personal data locker system, wherein the retailer ID is associated with information regarding the retailer and is usable by the personal data locker system to determine which portions of the user's personal data lockers should be shared with the particular retailer.

[0077] In the embodiment of FIG. 7B, the user may elect to release additional data that is not normally provided under the rights associated with the “commerce” category. Thus, the user may assign fewer rights to categories and then provide additional data that is necessary to individual requesting entities. In one embodiment, the user may pre-assign such specialized rights to a particular entity, such as Shopping Mall World in FIG. 7B, such that the process outlined in FIG. 7B is not necessary.

[0078] In an embodiment, as user may select particular items and/or types of data that the user wishes to allow a third-party to access, such as items that are stored in one or more particular data lockers. The user may have and/or be issued a unique ID (e.g., from the data locker system and/or from another system), such as an internet ID, that is associated with the user and used to uniquely identify the user within the personal data locker system, including associations between the unique ID and items and/or types of data the user has selected for sharing.

[0079] Depending on the embodiment, the user may set various levels of access rights for data stored in the various personal data lockers. For example, the user can pre-authorize particular entities to access a particular set of data (e.g., all or some data of one or more personal data lockers), while authorizing entities within a particular industry (e.g., retail) within a particular geographic region (e.g., the user's home ZIP code) to access another set of data. Thus, the user can authorize access to selectable portions of the user's personal data lockers based on various attributes associated with a requesting entity and/or the request, such as entity identifier, entity industry, entity location, purpose or use of data that is requested (e.g., as provided in the request and/or determined by the personal data locker system), time of day of request, number or previous requests from the entity and/or related entities, and/or any other attributes. In this way, the consumer is able to pre-authorize access to the consumer's personal data for easy sharing with others, while not oversharing data by setting rules for specific data that is to be shared with respective entities, such as based on the attributes noted above.

[0080] After the user has set some access right, the user may provide the unique ID to third-parties, which may then use the unique ID to access data of the user in the personal data lockers according to the access rules that apply to the particular requesting entity. For example, as noted above, the user may specify a purpose for which certain data may be accessed by a particular third-party (and/or group that includes the third-party). In this embodiment, the third-party may only be allowed to access the data for the purpose specified by the user. Thus, the particular third-party, e.g., a retailer, that attempts to access the data for another purpose will be denied access.

[0081] In an embodiment, the retailer (or third-party) is further authenticated, such that the retailer's identity is verified prior to access being provided to the retailer. In an embodiment, the system generates an identifier unique to the retailer (or third-party) once the user has specified data that is to be made available to that retailer. Then, the user may provide the generated identifier to the retailer, which the retailer may then use to access the specified data. In an embodiment, the process of specifying items and/or types of data to be accessed, and granting access to those specific items of data to a third-party is referred to as authorizing the third-party.

[0082] FIG. 8 is a flow diagram depicting an illustrative operation of the personal data locker system in which a request for data may be authorized, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. In various embodiments, additional blocks may be included, some blocks may be removed, and/or blocks may be connected or arranged differently from what is shown in FIG. 8.

[0083] The request for data depicted in the process of FIG. 8 may originate from a third-party application or other source, such as a third-party service (as shown in FIG. 2) or an operating system application or plug-in (as shown in layer 103 of FIG. 1). The process may be performed, for example, at blocks 404 and 405 of FIG. 4.

[0084] At block 801, the personal data locker system maintains personal data of a user, for example, in a computer-readable storage device (see FIG. 12 for additional details). At block 802, the system receives a request for data. The request may originate from an application programming interface or by other means.

[0085] At block 803, the system determines authorization credentials associated with the entity requesting data at block 802. The authorization credentials may be in the form of a user name and password, an application key, an authorization token, and/or other information. At block 804, the personal data locker determines whether or not the requestor from block 802 is authorized to receive the requested data. If the requestor is not authorized, then at block 805, the request from block 802 is denied, and the requestor may be notified of the denial. Then, at block 806, the denied request is logged and the user is notified. Thus, the user may learn of the unauthorized access and take appropriate security precautions or other measures.

[0086] If the requestor is authorized to receive data at block 804, then at block 807, a log entry is entered and the user may be notified of the access to the user's personal data locker. Then, at block 808, the data is provided to the requestor such that the request of block 802 is fulfilled.

[0087] FIG. 9 is a flow diagram depicting an illustrative operation of the personal data locker system in which a data is provided to a third party, such as a retailer, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. In various embodiments, additional blocks may be included, some blocks may be removed, and/or blocks may be connected or arranged differently from what is shown in FIG. 9.

[0088] The process of FIG. 9 may be used, for example, in a system such as that of FIG. 2. The process may be performed, for example, at blocks 404 and 405 of FIG. 4.

[0089] At block 901, a user provides an identity token to a third party. The identity token may be, for example, the user identification token 207 of FIG. 2. At block 902, the third party may authenticate the user using the provided token and/or other information provided by the user.

[0090] At block 903, the third party requests data from the personal data locker system. The request may be performed using an application programming interface, a code portion, or other means, as shown at block 204 of FIG. 2. At block 904, the system retrieves data that the third party is authorized to access from one or more personal data lockers. The data may be only retrieved if appropriate authorization credentials are provided, and the third party is appropriately authorized and given permission to receive the data.

[0091] At block 905, the data portal provides the data retrieved at block 904 to the third party. At block 906, the third party may use the retrieved data to provide various services and/or automatically register an account for the user. For example, the third party may use the retrieved data to automatically fill-in registration forms such that the user does not need to manually provide data for those forms.

[0092] At block 907, the third party provides details of how the personal data of the user was used, such as to indicate uses of the data discussed above with reference to 906. In one embodiment, provision of detailed use information is required before the third party is provided access rights to user's personal data. As discussed below, information regarding personal data use may be provided back to the user so that the user may monitor exactly how the user's personal information is being used.

[0093] FIG. 10 is an illustrative user interface of the personal data locker system including a personal data locker access log, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. The access log of FIG. 10 is shown as a web page interface, but it may alternately be presented as a mobile interface, desktop application interface, telephonic interface, and/or other interface.

[0094] Access log 1001 may include various data useful to a user reviewing accesses to that user's personal data lockers. For example, the access log 1001 may include a listing of entities accessing data 1002, time and/or date stamps of data accesses 1003, indications of the data that was accessed 1004, indications of personal data lockers from which the addressed data was pulled 1007, and/or indications of the reported purpose for the listed entity in accessing the user's personal data 1007. Additional data may be included on access log 1001 and/or less data may be included.

[0095] Column 1005 provides for various actions that a user may take in response to an entry on access log 1001. For example, in an embodiment, a user may specify that data is not to be shared with a particular entity by selecting a “stop sharing” option. Other actions that may be taken include communicating with the entity accessing the data, providing corrected data and/or disputing provided data, and/or viewing details of the data that was shared with the third-party entity, among others.

[0096] In an embodiment, purposes for which data may be accessed may include, among others, enrollment, eligibility, registration; ad targeting; loyalty point calculations; and social-networking activities.

[0097] FIG. 11 is a flow diagram depicting an illustrative operation of the personal data locker system in which personal data is combined from one or more personal data lockers, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. In various embodiments, additional blocks may be included, some blocks may be removed, and/or blocks may be connected or arranged differently from what is shown in FIG. 11.

[0098] The process of FIG. 11 may be performed, for example, at blocks 404 through 406 of FIG. 4.

[0099] At block 1101, an application requests data from one or more personal data lockers. At block 1102, the personal data locker system authorizes the application and/or entity that provided the application, to receive the requested data. At block 1103, the personal data locker system provides the requested data to the application.

[0100] Simultaneously, or at a different time, an application requests data from a personal data locker at block 1104. The application requesting data at block 1104 may be the same as the application requesting data at block 1101, or it may be a different application. The personal data locker from which data is requested at block 1104 may be the same personal data locker from which data was requested at block 1101, or it may be a different personal data locker. At block 1105, the personal data locker from which data was requested at block 1104 authorizes the application of block 1104 to receive the requested data, and at block 1106, the personal data locker provides the data to the application of block 1104.

[0101] At block 1107, an application correlates, combines, applies a mathematical formula to, and/or otherwise analyzes the data from both blocks 1103 and 1106 to find relationships, similarities, and/or other insights. In the case that the applications of blocks 1101 and 1104 are different, then multiple applications may communicate to form these insights. Otherwise, a single application may be able to combine data from a single personal data locker or multiple personal data lockers in order to find the relationships at block 1107. At block 1108, the application or applications generate a report based on the correlated data, and at block 1109, the application presents data on the user interface. Alternately, data may be presented at block 1109 by other means, such as email, physical mail, and/or offers at a point of sale, among others.

[0102] In an embodiment, the personal data locker system itself, rather than the application, may perform the analysis of personal locker data to determine insights. The insights and analysis data may then be transmitted to the application, or directly to the user.

[0103] Personal data stored in the personal data lockers may be combined in any number of ways to produce analyses and/or insights. Examples of analyses and/or insights that the personal data locker system may provide to the user may include, but are not limited to visualizations, graphs, trends, totals, combinations, and/or correlations, among others. For example, in an embodiment the system may display a graph to the user indicating the user's growing total expenses throughout the current month. In another example, the system may combine correlate weather data with data regarding the user's walking habits, to determine, for example, that the user tends to walk less of cloudy days. Such an insight may be presented to the user on a user interface as, for example, a statement, a graph, and/or a trend.

[0104] By maintaining data of all forms in various personal data lockers, an application is enabled to access data that may not normally be available to the application in order to provide new insights from disparate forms of data. For example, in an embodiment, an application may retrieve both health data and financial data from respective data lockers of a single user. The application then may determine correlations between the user's health and the user's financial status. Thus, the application may discover, for example, that increased financial stress has caused the user to lose sleep or otherwise decline in health. It may similarly detect that lower financial stress leads to increased health. It may further determine correlations in the other direction, for example, that increased health quality leads to lower financial stress and better management of finances.

[0105] In another example, an application or a system may display a graph to the user indicating the user's growing total expenses throughout the current month. In yet another example, the system may correlate weather data with data regarding the user's walking habits, to determine, for example, that the user tends to walk less of cloudy days. Such an insight may be presented to the user on a user interface as, for example, a statement, a graph, and/or a trend.

[0106] In an embodiment of the personal data locker system, particular combinations of personal data leading to particular insights (for example, the combination of weather data and walking data mentioned above) may be stored for future use, or for use by others. For example, the personal data locker system may provide a type of marketplace wherein particular combinations of data may be shared and/or bought and sold among users of the personal data locker system. Thus, as second user of the personal data locker system may choose to invoke the weather-walking data combination analysis on their personal data to look for insights. In an embodiment, the personal data locker system automatically provides analysis and/or insights to a user.

[0107] Thus, the personal data locker system, by providing a platform (e.g., an application programming interface) by which third-party applications may access various personal data lockers of users, advantageously allows for the development and discovery of new insights based on personal data. Further, the personal data locker system advantageously provides a user of the system with a single source from which to access their personal data. The user of the system may advantageously organize disparate personal data into one or more categories, and allow access to that data on a per-category and/or per-requestor basis. Third parties requesting data may be easily given access to necessary data, while being blocked from accessing unnecessary data. Additionally, the personal data locker system advantageously enables a user of the system to monitor who has access to what particular pieces or categories of data, and to revoke that access if desired.

[0108] FIG. 12 is a block diagram of an illustrative personal data locker server, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. The personal data locker server 1202 may be used, for example, to implement the functionality of the personal data locker system described in reference to FIGS. 1-11 above. The personal data locker server 1202 may include an arrangement of computer hardware and software elements that may be used to implement portions of the profile data management system. The personal data locker server 1202 may include more (or fewer) components than those shown in FIG. 12. It is not necessary, however, that all of these generally conventional components be shown in order to provide an enabling disclosure.

[0109] The personal data locker server 1202 includes a central processing unit (CPU) 1204, a memory 1206, a mass storage device 1208 (a non-transitory computer readable medium drive), input/output devices and interfaces 1210, multimedia devices 1212, a data collection module 1214, a data organization module 1216, an identity service module 1218, and a request fulfillment module 1220, all of which may communicate with one another by way of a communication bus.

[0110] Multimedia devices 1212 may include, for example, an optional display and/or an optional input device. The optional display and optional input device may be used in embodiments in which users interact directly with the personal data locker server 1202. The input/output devices and interfaces 1210 may include a network interface (among other devices) that may provide personal data locker server 1202 with connectivity to one or more networks or computing systems. For example, as shown in FIG. 12, the network interface may communicate over a network 1234 with external data source(s) 1230 and various users and/or third parties 1232. The CPU 1204 may thus receive information and instructions from other computing systems (such as electronic devices operated by the users and/or third parties 1232) or services via a network. The CPU 1204 may also communicate to and from memory 1206, and further provide output information for the multimedia devices 1212. The input/output devices and interfaces 1210 may accept input from the optional input device, such as a keyboard, mouse, digital pen, touch screen, or gestures recorded via motion capture. The input/output devices and interfaces 1210 may also output audio data to speakers or headphones (not shown).

[0111] In an embodiment, the personal data locker server 1202 may include a separate data store for storage of personal locker data. Alternatively, the personal locker data may be stored in the mass storage device 1208. In another alternative the personal locker data may be stored in an external data store.

[0112] The memory 1206 contains computer program instructions that the CPU 1204 executes in order to implement one or more embodiments of the personal data locker system. The memory 1206 generally includes RAM, ROM and/or other persistent or non-transitory computer-readable storage media. The memory 1206 may store an operating system software (such as Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Server, Unix, Linux, SunOS, Solaris, Macintosh OS X, or other compatible and/or proprietary operating systems) that provides computer program instructions for use by the CPU 1204 in the general administration and operation of the personal data locker server 1202. The memory 1206 may further include other information for implementing aspects of the personal data locker system.

[0113] For example, in one embodiment, the data collection module 1214, the data organization module 1216, the identity service module 1218, and/or the request fulfillment module 1220 are implemented in the memory 1206. The data collection module 1214 may facilitate gathering of data from, for example, the data source(s) 1230 (and as described in blocks 401, 402, and 403 of FIG. 4, for example). The data organization module 1216 may facilitate the placement of personal data in various data lockers (as described in block 403 of FIG. 4, for example), the combining of data to produce insights, and/or the logging of data accesses, among other tasks. The identity service module 1218 may facilitate the actions associated with identification of a particular user or application, among other tasks. Additionally, the request fulfillment module 1220 may facilitate the fulfillment of data requests (in other words, the transfer of data) by users, third parties, and/or applications.

[0114] The personal data locker server 1202 may further include a user interface module (not shown) that facilitates generation of user interfaces (such as by providing instructions therefor) for display upon a computing device such as a computing device operated by the users and/or third parties 1232. For example, a user interface may be displayed via a navigation interface such as a web browser installed on a computing device. Exemplary user interfaces generated by the user interface module are described in reference to FIGS. 6, 7A, 7B, and 10. In addition, memory 1206 may include or communicate with the data source(s) 1230 to retrieve various personal data.

[0115] In an embodiment, the data collection module 1214, the data organization module 1216, the identity service module 1218, and/or the request fulfillment module 1220 may be stored in the mass storage device 1208 as executable software codes that are executed by the CPU 1204. The modules may include, by way of example, components, such as software components, object-oriented software components, class components and task components, processes, functions, attributes, procedures, subroutines, segments of program code, drivers, firmware, microcode, circuitry, data, databases, data structures, tables, arrays, and variables.

[0116] In general, the word “module,” as used herein, refers to logic embodied in hardware or firmware, or to a collection of software instructions, possibly having entry and exit points, written in a programming language, such as, for example, Java, Lua, C or C++. A software module may be compiled and linked into an executable program, installed in a dynamic link library, or may be written in an interpreted programming language such as, for example, BASIC, Perl, or Python. It will be appreciated that software modules may be callable from other modules or from themselves, and/or may be invoked in response to detected events or interrupts. Software modules configured for execution on computing devices may be provided on a computer readable medium, such as a compact disc, digital video disc, flash drive, or any other tangible medium. Such software code may be stored, partially or fully, on a memory device of the executing computing device, such as the personal data locker server 1202, for execution by the computing device. Software instructions may be embedded in firmware, such as an EPROM. It will be further appreciated that hardware modules may be comprised of connected logic units, such as gates and flip-flops, and/or may be comprised of programmable units, such as programmable gate arrays or processors. The modules described herein are preferably implemented as software modules, but may be represented in hardware or firmware. Generally, the modules described herein refer to logical modules that may be combined with other modules or divided into sub-modules despite their physical organization or storage.

[0117] In some embodiments, the functionality of the personal data locker server 1202 may be implemented partially or entirely by a user and/or third-party user computing device. Accordingly, either user or third-party user computing device, or both, may include the data collection module 1214, the data organization module 1216, the identity service module 1218, the request fulfillment module 1220, and/or other components that operate similarly to the components illustrated as part of the personal data locker server 1202, including a CPU 1204, network interface, mass storage device 1208, input/output devices and interfaces 1210, memory 1206, user interface module, and so forth.

[0118] It will be recognized that many of the devices described herein are optional and that embodiments of personal data locker system may or may not combine devices. Moreover, user and/or third-party user computing devices operated by the users and/or third-party users 1232, and/or the personal data locker server 1202 may each be embodied in a plurality of devices, each executing an instance of the respective devices. However, devices need not be distinct or discrete. Devices may also be reorganized in the personal data locker system. For example, the personal data locker server 1202 may be represented in a single physical server or, alternatively, may be split into multiple physical servers. The entirety of the functions of the personal data locker server 1202 may be represented in a single user computing device as well. Additionally, it should be noted that in some embodiments, the functionality of the personal data locker server 1202 is provided by one more virtual machines implemented in a hosted computing environment. The hosted computing environment may include one or more rapidly provisioned and released computing resources, which computing resources may include computing, networking and/or storage devices. A hosted computing environment may also be referred to as a cloud computing environment.

[0119] The user and/or third-party user computing devices (operated by the users and/or third parties 1232) described above may be any computing device capable of communicating over the network 1234, such as a laptop or tablet computer, personal computer, personal digital assistant (PDA), hybrid PDA/mobile phone, mobile phone, in-vehicle computer device or navigation system, global positioning system (GPS) device, electronic book reader, set-top box, camera, audiobook player, digital media player, video game console, in-store kiosk, television, one or more processors, integrated components for inclusion in computing devices, appliances, electronic devices for inclusion in vehicles or machinery, gaming devices, or the like. The computing devices may communicate over the network 1234, for example, to obtain personal data associated with a user from the user's personal data lockers.

[0120] The network 1234 may be any wired network, wireless network, and/or combination thereof. In addition, the network 1234 may be a personal area network, local area network, wide area network, cable network, satellite network, cellular telephone network, the Internet, and/or combination thereof. Protocols and components for communicating via the Internet or any of the other aforementioned types of communication networks are well known to those skilled in the art of computer communications and thus, need not be described in more detail herein.

[0121] The data source(s) 1230, as well as the personal data locker data store and the mass storage device 1208, may be embodied in hard disk drives, solid state memories, and/or any other type of non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium remotely or locally accessible to the personal data locker server 1202, and/or they may also be distributed or partitioned across multiple storage devices as is known in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure.

[0122] Depending on the embodiment, certain acts, events, or functions of any of the processes or algorithms described herein may be performed in a different sequence, may be added, may be merged, and/or may be left out altogether (for example, not all described operations or events are necessary for the practice of the process or algorithm). Moreover, in certain embodiments, operations or events may be performed concurrently, for example, through multi-threaded processing, interrupt processing, or multiple processors or processor cores or on other parallel architectures, rather than sequentially.

[0123] The various illustrative logical blocks, modules, routines, and algorithm steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented as electronic hardware, computer software, or combinations of both. To clearly illustrate this interchangeability of hardware and software, various illustrative components, blocks, modules, and steps have been described above generally in terms of their functionality. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the overall system. The described functionality may be implemented in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the disclosure.

[0124] The steps of a method, process, routine, or algorithm described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be embodied directly in hardware, in a software module executed by a processor, or in a combination of the two. A software module may reside in RAM memory, flash memory, ROM memory, EPROM memory, EEPROM memory, registers, hard disk, a removable disk, a CD-ROM, or any other form of a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium. An example storage medium may be coupled to the processor such that the processor may read information from, and write information to, the storage medium. In the alternative, the storage medium may be integral to the processor. The processor and the storage medium may reside in an ASIC. The ASIC may reside in a user terminal. In the alternative, the processor and the storage medium may reside as discrete components in a user terminal.

[0125] Conditional language used herein, such as, among others, “can,” “could,” “might,” “may,” “for example,” and the like, unless specifically stated otherwise, or otherwise understood within the context as used, is generally intended to convey that certain embodiments include, while other embodiments do not include, certain features, elements and/or steps. Thus, such conditional language is not generally intended to imply that features, elements and/or steps are in any way required for one or more embodiments or that one or more embodiments necessarily include logic for deciding, with or without author input or prompting, whether these features, elements and/or steps are included or are to be performed in any particular embodiment. The terms “comprising,” “including,” “having,” and the like are synonymous and are used inclusively, in an open-ended fashion, and do not exclude additional elements, features, acts, operations, and so forth. Also, the term “or” is used in its inclusive sense (and not in its exclusive sense) so that when used, for example, to connect a list of elements, the term “or” means one, some, or all of the elements in the list.

[0126] Conjunctive language such as the phrase “at least one of X, Y and Z,” unless specifically stated otherwise, is to be understood with the context as used in general to convey that an item, term, etc. may be either X, Y, or Z, or a combination thereof. Thus, such conjunctive language is not generally intended to imply that certain embodiments require at least one of X, at least one of Y, and at least one of Z to each be present.

[0127] While the above detailed description has shown, described, and pointed out novel features as applied to various embodiments, it may be understood that various omissions, substitutions, and changes in the form and details of the devices or processes illustrated may be made without departing from the spirit of the disclosure. As may be recognized, certain embodiments of the inventions described herein may be embodied within a form that does not provide all of the features and benefits set forth herein, as some features may be used or practiced separately from others. The scope of certain inventions disclosed herein is indicated by the appended claims rather than by the foregoing description. All changes which come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are to be embraced within their scope.