Vehicle Data Swapping for User Anonymity
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Solution Overview
Problem
Vehicle telematics systems raise privacy and security concerns by transmitting user data to central servers, as the origin of collected data cannot be obscured, potentially compromising user anonymity.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a data swapping system between vehicles using vehicle-to-vehicle communication, where a random portion of data from one vehicle is exchanged with another, ensuring the true origin of the data is obscured, and multiple swaps are performed among different vehicle pairings to further anonymize the data, without using vehicle data plans, allowing the same-sized swapped data to be sent to the server.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If user data is transmitted to a central server for analysis, then data collection and analysis capabilities are improved, but user anonymity and privacy security are compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments user data into multiple portions and distributes them across different vehicles. Each vehicle stores only a fragment of the original data set, making it impossible to reconstruct complete user profiles from any single vehicle's data, thus protecting user anonymity while maintaining aggregate data collection capabilities
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a data intermediary layer where data is swapped between vehicles through a coordination mechanism. This intermediary process obscures the original data source by routing data through multiple vehicles before reaching the central server, thereby protecting user identity while enabling data collection
2Object-affected harmful factors
If data swapping is performed between vehicles to anonymize data, then user anonymity is improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a self-service data swapping mechanism where vehicles autonomously participate in data exchange based on predefined protocols. Each vehicle's telematics unit independently manages data swapping operations with neighboring vehicles without requiring centralized coordination for each exchange, reducing overall system complexity while maintaining anonymity
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the parameter of data attribution by systematically altering which vehicle is associated with which data set through swapping operations. This parameter transformation obscures the original data source while using simple, repeatable swap operations that minimize system complexity
3Object-affected harmful factors
If data swapping is performed to anonymize user data, then privacy protection is improved, but data transmission time and processing overhead increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs data swapping operations in advance before data needs to be transmitted to the central server. By pre-anonymizing data through vehicle-to-vehicle swapping, the system eliminates the need for complex anonymization processing at transmission time, reducing overall processing overhead while maintaining privacy protection
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses direct vehicle-to-vehicle data swapping that skips intermediate processing steps. Data is exchanged directly between vehicles through wireless communication without requiring manual intervention or complex routing, rapidly completing the anonymization process while minimizing time loss
Data Source
AI summary
A size of collected data to swap is identified, over vehicle-to-vehicle communication between first and second vehicles. A first segment of data of the size stored to the first vehicle is swapped with a second segment of data of the size stored to the second vehicle over the vehicle-to-vehicle communication between the first and second vehicles. The swapped data received from the second vehicle is sent from the first vehicle to a server.