Portable Smart Card Pseudo Payment Code Generation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing payment technologies, such as RFID tags and barcodes, often reveal the identity of consumers during transactions, raising privacy concerns as merchants can track buying habits using credit card or account information.
Innovation Solution
A portable smart card that outputs pseudo payment codes, allowing users to make payments without revealing their actual identity by using a microcontroller with a table of pseudo-identifier information, ensuring merchants receive only fictitious details, preventing tracking of buying habits.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If merchants use scanned information from payment methods like credit cards to track buying habits, then productivity in customer relationship management is improved, but consumer privacy is compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a portable anonymous payment device as an intermediary between the consumer and the merchant's payment processing system. This device contains a microcontroller that generates pseudo-identifier information (fake credit card numbers, expiration dates, etc.) to represent the actual consumer identity. The intermediary translates real payment information into anonymous pseudo-information, allowing transaction processing without exposing actual consumer identity to merchants, thus resolving the contradiction between enabling payment tracking for business purposes and protecting consumer privacy
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates copies of payment information in the form of pseudo-identifiers that mimic the structure and function of real credit card data but contain no actual identifying information. The microcontroller generates multiple pseudo credit card numbers, expiration dates, and other payment details that appear valid to payment processing systems but cannot be traced back to the actual consumer. These copies enable the payment system to function normally while preventing the loss of real consumer identity information
2Ease of operation
If RFID tags or barcodes are used for product identification, then ease of operation at point-of-sale terminals is improved, but the ability to maintain consumer anonymity is worsened when combined with traditional payment tracking
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the product identification function (RFID tags, barcodes) with the anonymous payment function in a single integrated system. The portable anonymous payment device can simultaneously handle product scanning and payment processing, or work in conjunction with scanned product information. This merging allows the system to maintain the ease of operation provided by automated product identification while ensuring that payment information does not reveal consumer identity, as the anonymous pseudo-identifiers are used regardless of how products are identified
3Adaptability or versatility
If merchants collect detailed payment information for customer relationship management, then adaptability in marketing and service is improved, but the harmful effect of privacy intrusion increases
Solution Approach 1:
The portable anonymous payment device serves as an intermediary that prevents direct linkage between purchase behavior and consumer identity. While merchants can still process transactions and potentially track anonymous purchasing patterns, the intermediary ensures that sensitive personal information (real name, actual address, real payment account) cannot be accessed or correlated with purchase history. This allows merchants to maintain some level of service adaptation based on anonymous data while preventing harmful privacy intrusion
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs disposable or frequently regenerated pseudo-identifier information that has no lasting connection to the actual consumer identity. Each transaction or session may use different pseudo credit card numbers and personal information that is discarded afterward. These cheap, short-lived anonymous identifiers enable temporary tracking for transaction purposes but cannot be accumulated to build a persistent profile of the actual consumer, thus limiting harmful privacy intrusion while allowing basic adaptability
Data Source
AI summary
One aspect of the invention relates to a technique for effecting payment, and involves: presenting a portable device; and causing the portable device to output a pseudo payment code.