Personalization Service Server for Secure Accessibility
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Users with disabilities face increased risk of fraud due to their personalized computer settings being detectable by unauthorized parties, which can expose their disabilities and lead to targeted scams or malware exploitation.
Innovation Solution
A system that generates and provides personalized content files to client computers without directly identifying the user's disability, making it difficult for unauthorized parties to determine the disability from the computer's settings, using a personalization service server with a personalization engine that creates and distributes encrypted personalization files based on user-specific data.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If personalized settings are implemented to accommodate user disabilities, then accessibility and usability are improved, but security and privacy are worsened due to increased fraud risk
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a personalization service server as an intermediary between the user and the content delivery system. This server generates personalized content files with disability accommodations (such as text-to-speech, high contrast, large font) without exposing the user's actual disability information. The intermediary transforms the personalization process to protect user privacy while maintaining accessibility benefits.
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates copied or simulated personalization files that contain the necessary accessibility modifications without revealing the user's true disability status. Instead of directly applying user-specific disability settings, the system generates alternative versions of content that provide similar accessibility benefits without exposing sensitive personal information.
2Ease of operation
If disability-specific personalization files are stored on the client computer, then accessibility is improved, but detectability of disability by unauthorized parties is worsened
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the disability-specific personalization data from the client computer and stores it on a remote personalization service server. The client computer receives only the generated personalization files without containing the underlying disability information. This extraction removes the security vulnerability while preserving the accessibility functionality.
Solution Approach 2:
The personalization service server acts as an intermediary that generates and delivers personalized content files without requiring the client computer to store sensitive disability information. The server mediates between the user's accessibility needs and the security requirement to hide disability status from unauthorized parties.
Data Source
AI summary
Embodiments disclosed herein include methods and apparatuses for providing security to computer users with disabilities, who configure their computers to personalize output in a fashion that enables the user to more easily understand the content of the output. While previously a computer configured to personalize output accordingly may have served as a source of disability information to unauthorized parties accessing the computers, embodiments disclosed herein configure computers for personalization without leaving thereon a record how the personalization was specified during the configuration process. Thus, an unauthorized party gaining access to the user's computer would find it very difficult, if not impossible, to determine the user's disability from an inspection of the computer, so the user is much less likely to become a victim of fraud based on an unauthorized discovery of information regarding vulnerabilities.