Dynamic Credit Report Obfuscation via Selective Field Redaction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Individuals have limited ability to control and redact information in credit reports shared with third parties, leading to potential harm from irrelevant or unnecessary information being used in decision-making processes, such as loan approvals or employment assessments.
Innovation Solution
A system and method for dynamically obfuscating credit reports, allowing users to generate customized and redacted reports through a user device or credit report server, enabling selective inclusion or exclusion of information fields and sharing controlled access links to third parties.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a complete credit report is shared with third parties, then the third party obtains comprehensive information for decision-making, but sensitive and irrelevant information is exposed causing potential harm to the individual
Solution Approach 1:
The credit report is segmented into multiple information fields (personal information, credit account information, collection information, public record information, etc.), allowing selective redaction of specific fields while maintaining the integrity and reliability of the shared report structure
Solution Approach 2:
Different levels of redaction are applied to different information fields based on their sensitivity and relevance. The system allows granular control over which specific fields are redacted, enabling each field to have its own quality characteristics (redacted or visible) rather than applying uniform redaction to the entire report
2Object-affected harmful factors
If an individual redacts information on a hard copy credit report, then sensitive information is protected, but the report loses indicia of trustworthiness and authenticity
Solution Approach 1:
The system introduces a trusted intermediary service that generates the redacted credit report on behalf of the individual. This intermediary maintains the official formatting, seals, and authenticity indicators of the original report while programmatically redacting specified fields, thereby preserving both privacy protection and report authenticity
3Ease of operation
If an individual creates a custom copy of the credit report, then control over information sharing is improved, but the ability to limit the scope of information is restricted
Solution Approach 1:
The redaction configuration is made dynamic and adaptable. The system allows users to selectively redact or reveal specific information fields based on the recipient and purpose, rather than using fixed redaction templates. Users can adjust which fields are redacted for different recipients, enabling flexible adaptation to various scenarios while maintaining ease of operation through automated field identification and rediction
Data Source
AI summary
A method for creating a customized and redacted credit report may include transmitting a user request to generate a customized credit report, receiving a copy of a stored credit report, analyzing the copy of the stored credit report, displaying one or more information fields and one or more selectable user interface elements, transmitting a credit report redaction list, and receiving a customized credit report. A user device for configuring a customized credit report may include a processor, a display in communication with the processor, and a non-transitory memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform processing including transmitting a user request to generate a customized credit report, displaying one or more information fields and one or more selectable user interface elements, transmitting a credit report redaction list, and receiving a shareable credit report link associated with a customized credit report.