User Terminal Capability Filtering Rules for Privacy Control
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing mechanisms for exchanging capabilities between user terminals, such as SIP Options and presence services, expose terminal capabilities automatically, potentially infringing on user privacy and requiring costly presence service setups, with outdated or misleading information.
Innovation Solution
Implementing pre-configured filtering rules in user terminals to control the exposure of capabilities, allowing users to selectively omit certain capabilities based on situational, identity-based, or status-related criteria, thereby modifying capability messages sent to other terminals.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If capability exchange mechanisms (SIP Options, presence services) are implemented to enable communication between user terminals, then communication compatibility and service availability are improved, but user privacy is compromised and system cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and separates the capability information from the complete terminal profile. Instead of exposing all terminal capabilities, only selected capability subsets are exchanged based on user-defined policies. This extraction principle allows the system to maintain communication compatibility while removing privacy-infringing elements.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a capability policy manager as an intermediary component between the terminal capabilities and the capability exchange process. This mediator filters and controls what capability information is exposed to other terminals, preventing direct exposure of complete terminal profiles while still enabling necessary communication compatibility.
2Reliability
If presence services are used to exchange capability information between terminals, then real-time capability availability is improved, but system complexity and deployment cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements self-service by embedding the capability policy manager directly within the user terminal. Each terminal independently manages its own capability information exposure without requiring external presence service infrastructure. This eliminates the need for complex centralized presence servers while maintaining accurate capability information exchange.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the capability exchange function from the presence service infrastructure. Instead of relying on a unified presence service system, the capability management is divided into independent terminal-based policy modules. This segmentation reduces system complexity and eliminates dependency on costly presence service deployments.
3Adaptability or versatility
If complete terminal capabilities are exposed to enable full communication options, then communication versatility is improved, but security risks and malicious exploitation increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary anti-action by pre-configuring capability exposure policies before any capability exchange occurs. Users define in advance which capabilities should be exposed and under what conditions, preventing potential security exploits before they can occur. This proactive approach blocks malicious exploitation vectors while maintaining legitimate communication options.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces dynamic capability exposure where the set of exposed capabilities changes based on contextual factors such as user identity, communication partner, and current terminal state. This dynamic adjustment allows the system to provide full communication versatility when safe while restricting exposure when security risks are present, preventing malicious exploitation.
Data Source
AI summary
A method in a first user terminal (300, 500) for supporting provision of capabilities of the first user terminal to a second user terminal (302) is provided.The method comprises receipt (402) of a capability request from the second user terminal. Upon receipt of the capability request, filtering rules are used (406) on the capabilities of the first user terminal, wherein the filtering rules have been pre-configured for the first user terminal to control exposure of said capabilities. Thereafter a capability message is transmitted (408) to the second user terminal, wherein at least one of the capabilities of the first user terminal have been omitted from the capability message based on the filtering rules.