Richard O Chow

US Patent:

7805608, Sep 28, 2010

Filed:

Nov 3, 2006

Appl. No.:

11/592793

Inventors:

Richard T. Chow - Sunnyvale CA, US

Assignee:

Yahoo! Inc. - Sunnyvale CA

International Classification:

H04L 29/00

US Classification:

713168, 713171, 380277, 380278, 380279

Abstract:

Techniques for ensuring privacy of users are provided. In one approach, a Web server receives a request from a Web browser. The Web browser generates an encryption key and sends the encryption key to the Web browser in a cookie. The Web server later encrypts the request (or any portion thereof) using the encryption key and deletes the encryption key so that the Web server is unable to determine the actual contents of the encrypted data. If the user does not delete the cookie (which would delete the encryption key), then a later request from the Web browser includes the cookie and the encryption key. The Web server is then able to decrypt the previously encrypted data and perform substantive analysis on the decrypted data.

US Patent:

7860885, Dec 28, 2010

Filed:

Dec 5, 2007

Appl. No.:

11/951198

Inventors:

Richard Chow - Sunnyvale CA, US
Philippe J. P. Golle - San Francisco CA, US
Jessica N. Staddon - Redwood City CA, US

Assignee:

Palo Alto Research Center Incorporated - Palo Alto CA

International Classification:

G06F 17/30

US Classification:

707769, 707706, 707754, 707771, 707E17059, 707E17061, 707E17062, 707999001, 707999003, 707999004

Abstract:

A system is provided to detect email spam. During operation, the system receives an email, extracts a set of keywords from the email body, and constructs a first search query based a keyword extracted from the email body. The system further constructs a second search query based on the keyword in the first query and one additional word which pertains to a known spam word or to the subject of the email. Next, the system receives a first number of hits and a second number of hits in response to the first and second search queries, respectively. The system then determines whether the email is spam based on the first number and the second number. The system can also perform Website filtering using inference detection which is based on search results received in response to search queries formulated with keywords extracted from Websites.

US Patent:

8095112, Jan 10, 2012

Filed:

Aug 21, 2008

Appl. No.:

12/196083

Inventors:

Richard Chow - Sunnyvale CA, US
Philippe J. P. Golle - San Francisco CA, US
Jessica N. Staddon - Redwood City CA, US

Assignee:

Palo Alto Research Center Incorporated - Palo Alto CA

International Classification:

H04M 1/66

US Classification:

455410, 455411, 726 2

Abstract:

One embodiment of the present invention provides a method for adjusting security status on a mobile device, the method comprising: collecting security-related contextual information which includes information of nearby mobile devices and/or the geographic location of the intelligent mobile device; evaluating a threat level based on the collected security-related contextual information; invoking a security policy; and adjusting the security status of the mobile device based on the threat level and the security policy.

US Patent:

8161534, Apr 17, 2012

Filed:

Nov 13, 2008

Appl. No.:

12/270154

Inventors:

Philippe J. P. Golle - San Francisco CA, US
Bjorn Markus Jakobsson - Mountain View CA, US
Richard Chow - Sunnyvale CA, US

Assignee:

Palo Alto Research Center Incorporated - Palo Alto CA

International Classification:

G06F 7/04

US Classification:

726 6, 726 2, 726 18, 726 19, 726 27, 369 2601, 369 3011, 709206, 709219, 709229, 713156, 713166, 713168, 713179, 713184, 713170, 713182

Abstract:

One embodiment provides a system that verifies a user's identity. The system generates a list including a plurality of items and formulates a substantially large set of security questions base on the plurality of items. The number of questions in the set is significantly larger than a subset of security questions presented to the user to reduce the likelihood of the same questions being asked repeatedly. During account creation, the system presents to the user the subset of questions, and receives and stores a response from the user. At least one question in the subset is selected based on user information that is automatically extracted from devices associated with the user. Subsequently, the system receives a request to reset the user's password and presents the subset of questions to the requester. The system determines whether the requester is the user by comparing the requester's response with the stored user response.

US Patent:

8245038, Aug 14, 2012

Filed:

Mar 26, 2008

Appl. No.:

12/055870

Inventors:

Philippe Jean-Paul Golle - San Francisco CA, US
Jessica N. Staddon - Redwood City CA, US
Richard Chow - Sunnyvale CA, US

Assignee:

Palo Alto Research Center Incorporated - Palo Alto CA

International Classification:

H04L 29/06

US Classification:

713168, 713179

Abstract:

One embodiment of the present invention provides a system which allows a document owner to redact content from a document and allows a recipient of the redacted document to challenge the appropriateness of the redaction. During operation, the system allows the document owner to redact a string Mfrom location i in the document. In doing so, the system produces a commitment C=C(M, R) based on string Mand a string Rused as randomness and communicates Cto the recipient. When the recipient challenges the redaction, the system receives a topic string T from the recipient, and produces a string R. The system then communicates Rto the recipient, thereby allowing the recipient to produce a commitment C=C(T, R) based on strings T and R, and compare Cwith C. Comparing commitment Cwith Callows the recipient to test redactions for string equality.

US Patent:

8266712, Sep 11, 2012

Filed:

Nov 3, 2009

Appl. No.:

12/611684

Inventors:

Richard Chow - Sunnyvale CA, US
Philippe J. P. Golle - San Francisco CA, US
Runting Shi - Sunnyvale CA, US

Assignee:

Palo Alto Research Center Incorporated - Palo Alto CA

International Classification:

G06F 7/04

US Classification:

726 28

Abstract:

Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a method and system for protecting privacy by generating artificial contextual data. The system collects real contextual data related to a user. The system then generates artificial contextual data, based on the collected real contextual data. The system also groups the generated contextual data into one or more groups. Each group of contextual data corresponds to a persona that can be presented as the user's persona. Subsequently, the system transmits the generated contextual data to an entity, thereby allowing the user to obscure the real contextual data related to the user.

US Patent:

8271483, Sep 18, 2012

Filed:

Sep 10, 2008

Appl. No.:

12/208091

Inventors:

Jessica N. Staddon - Redwood City CA, US
Richard Chow - Sunnyvale CA, US
Valeria de Paiva - Cupertino CA, US
Philippe J. P. Golle - San Francisco CA, US
Ji Fang - Mountain View CA, US
Tracy Holloway King - Mountain View CA, US

Assignee:

Palo Alto Research Center Incorporated - Palo Alto CA

International Classification:

G06F 17/30

US Classification:

707730, 707706, 707707, 707727, 707728, 707736

Abstract:

One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that detects sensitive content in a document. In doing so, the system receives a document, identifies a set of terms in the document that are candidate sensitive terms, and generates a combination of terms based on the identified terms that is associated with a semantic meaning. Next, the system performs searches through a corpus based on the combination of terms and determines hit counts returned for each term in the combination and for the combination. The system then determines whether the combination of terms is sensitive based on the hit count for the combination and the hit counts for the individual terms in the combination, and generates a result that indicates portions of the document which contain sensitive combinations.

US Patent:

8307407, Nov 6, 2012

Filed:

Mar 11, 2008

Appl. No.:

12/045917

Inventors:

Bjorn Markus Jakobsson - Palo Alto CA, US
Philippe J. P. Golle - San Francisco CA, US
Richard Chow - Sunnyvale CA, US

Assignee:

Palo Alto Research Center Incorporated - Palo Alto CA

International Classification:

G06F 7/04
G06F 17/30

US Classification:

726 2, 726 7, 726 17, 713170, 713182

Abstract:

A system for displaying a set of selectable CAPTCHAs produces a first set of CAPTCHAs whose images are based at least partially on an alphanumeric sequence, where a respective CAPTCHA in the first set is associated with a CAPTCHA property. The system also produces a second set of CAPTCHAs whose images are based at least partially on an alphanumeric sequence, where a respective CAPTCHA in the second set is not associated with a CAPTCHA property. Next, the system displays the first and second sets of CAPTCHAs. Finally, the system makes respective CAPTCHAs in the first and second sets of CAPTCHAs selectable, thereby allowing a user to pass a CAPTCHA challenge by distinguishing the first set of CAPTCHAs from the second set of CAPTCHAs without typing the words associated with the images.