Self-identifier Exchange for Anonymous Physical World Correlation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Users of conventional virtual world forums face challenges in transitioning from anonymous online interactions to physical world interactions due to concerns over privacy, safety, and ensuring the identity of the physical world counterpart.
Innovation Solution
The exchange of self-identifiers between virtual world personas, which lack personal identification information, allows parties to correlate each other while maintaining anonymity and control over when and how this information is shared, enabling physical world interactions while preserving privacy and safety.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If personal identification information is shared to enable physical world interaction, then the reliability of identity verification is improved, but the privacy and safety of users deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces self-identifiers as intermediary tokens that enable identity verification without exposing personal identification information. These self-identifiers act as mediators between the need for reliable identity confirmation and the need to protect user privacy, allowing parties to verify who they are dealing with while maintaining anonymity through the use of non-personal identifying markers
2Object-affected harmful factors
If anonymity is maintained in virtual world interactions, then the safety and privacy of users is improved, but the ability to ensure physical world counterpart identity deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a copy of identity verification capability through self-identifiers that replicate the function of personal identification without containing actual personal data. These self-identifiers are digital copies that enable identity confirmation while preserving anonymity, allowing the system to maintain safety through anonymity while still providing reliable identity assurance
3Object-affected harmful factors
If control over information sharing is increased, then the privacy and safety of users is improved, but the ease of physical world interaction deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements self-service mechanisms where users automatically generate and exchange self-identifiers without manual intervention for each interaction. The system handles the complexity of privacy control automatically, allowing users to maintain full control over their information sharing while experiencing seamless, easy physical world interactions through automated self-identifier management
Data Source
AI summary
Techniques described herein relate to facilitating interaction in the physical world, after initial interaction has occurred within the virtual world, while also maintaining at least a degree of privacy, anonymity, safety, and/or deniability for the physical world parties. This may be accomplished, according to some example embodiments, by the exchange of one or more self-identifiers between virtual world personas, each of which is defined by its sending physical world party but that lacks any personal identification information associated with the sending party. Content of a self-identifier may only be known to the sending physical world party, at least until the receiving party is authorized and/or consents to view or display the self-identifier in a manner that may be perceived by the sending party. A sending party that perceives their own self-identifier, as displayed by a receiving party, may correlate the receiving party with a virtual world persona to which the self-identifier was sent.