Multi-Source Age Assurance for Privacy-Safe Interactive Workflows
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing age assurance systems lack efficient and secure methods for determining a user's age online without disclosing personal identity, especially in third-party workflows, and there is a need for enhanced techniques to protect children from online harms.
Innovation Solution
An automated age assurance system that queries multiple data sources through an external third-party workflow, using email addresses to derive an age estimate based on frequency and confidence levels, leveraging statistical analysis and encryption to ensure security and efficiency.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If traditional age verification methods using identity documents are used, then age determination accuracy is improved, but user privacy protection deteriorates and operation complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the essential age-related information from identity documents through OCR technology, rather than processing or storing the complete document. The system extracts birth date or age information and discards other personally identifiable information, thus achieving age verification while minimizing privacy exposure.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary OCR processing layer between the user's identity document and the age verification system. This intermediary extracts only the necessary age information and passes it forward, preventing direct exposure of full identity details while still enabling accurate age determination.
2Reliability
If manual identity verification is performed, then age verification reliability is improved, but processing time increases and automation level decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the mechanical manual verification process with automated OCR technology and image processing algorithms. The system automatically captures, recognizes, and validates identity document information without human intervention, maintaining verification reliability while dramatically reducing processing time.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent performs preliminary automated processing of identity documents through OCR and image analysis before any human review. This preliminary action extracts and validates key information upfront, so that subsequent verification steps can proceed quickly with pre-processed data, reducing overall processing time while maintaining reliability.
3Measurement precision
If comprehensive identity information is collected, then age verification accuracy is improved, but system complexity and data security requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the specific age-related fields from identity documents using OCR technology, rather than collecting or processing comprehensive identity information. By taking out only the birth date or age field and discarding other information, the system achieves sufficient verification accuracy while minimizing system complexity and data security burdens.
Data Source
AI summary
A solution for efficient and secure automated age assurance checking in association with a third party workflow involving an interaction between a user having an associated email address, and a target service. A request to estimate an age of the user is received and includes the email address. In response, the system issues a query to one or more data sources, each data source being of a different type and having an age attribute associated therewith. The data source(s) return responses to the queries. The system then associates an age attribute (typically, a minimum age) to each indication received from each data source queried. Based on a frequency of occurrence of the indications and the associated age attributes, a digital footprint that includes an estimate of the individual's minimum age is derived. A response (e.g., the estimated minimum age) to the request is then returned to the third party workflow.