User-Specific Encryption for Privacy-Preserving Venue Contact Tracing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods for tracing individuals in public events or venues are burdensome and insecure, failing to protect sensitive personal data and risking unauthorized access due to inadequate data storage and handling practices.
Innovation Solution
An electronic system with user devices and a server that encrypts user data with user-specific keys, generates trace IDs based on user IDs and time information, and ensures only authorized entities can decrypt this data, maintaining anonymity and security.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If personal data is collected and stored by venue operators for tracing purposes, then contact tracing capability is improved, but data security and privacy protection deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary encryption layer between the venue operators and user data. Instead of storing plain personal data, the system encrypts user data with user-specific keys and stores only encrypted versions on the server. This intermediary encryption mechanism enables contact tracing functionality while preventing venue operators from accessing sensitive personal information, thus resolving the contradiction between tracing capability and data security.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transforms the state of user data from accessible plaintext to encrypted ciphertext through cryptographic transformation. By changing the parameter of data accessibility from 'readable' to 'encrypted', the system maintains the ability to trace contacts (by storing encrypted identifiers) while eliminating the security risk of storing sensitive personal data in accessible form.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If user data is encrypted with user-specific keys stored on user devices, then data security is improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements self-service encryption where each user's device automatically generates and manages their own encryption keys. The user device encrypts personal data locally using user-specific keys before transmission to the server. This self-service approach distributes the cryptographic burden to individual users rather than requiring complex centralized key management infrastructure, thus improving data protection while limiting system complexity growth.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the cryptographic key management into user-specific independent key pairs stored on individual user devices. Each user manages their own encryption keys separately rather than using a centralized key system. This segmentation isolates security risks to individual users and simplifies the overall system architecture by eliminating the need for complex centralized key distribution and management infrastructure.
3Productivity
If trace IDs are generated and stored on the server, then tracing efficiency is improved, but user anonymity deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the personally identifiable information from the stored data on the server. Instead of storing complete user profiles that would compromise anonymity, the system extracts only the necessary trace identifiers (encrypted user IDs and venue visit records) and stores them on the server. The full personal data remains encrypted and stored locally on user devices, thus maintaining anonymity while enabling efficient tracing through the extracted trace IDs.
Data Source
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Figure 2
Figure 3A~3C
AI summary
The invention relates to an electronic system (200) comprising user devices (204) and a server (202) for tracing users, who are temporarily in different spatial areas (venues), for an entity (246), wherein the electronic system is designed to carry out the following steps: during a registration: storing user data (300) on the server (202), wherein the user data is encrypted with a user data key (310) that is individual to the associated user; and storing the user IDs and a user-individual user data decryption key (310), that is required to decrypt the encrypted user data, in the user device which is associated with the user; in the course of a check-in of one of the users to one of the venues, generating a trace ID which is representative of a combination of a user ID and a current item of time information, and storing the trace ID linked to the venue ID of the one venue on the server (202); receiving a notification containing the user ID of one of the users; generating candidate trace IDs for the user identified in the notification, wherein the candidate trace IDs are possible past trace IDs that are within a predefined past time period; and the server (202) uses the generated candidate trace IDs as a search criterion in order to locate corresponding trace IDs stored on the server for the past time period in order to determine the venue IDs of the venues visited by the user; and outputting the determined venue IDs.