JP2003203139A - Information processing device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To protect the secrecy property of information transmission history and utilize the information transmission history without impairing user's convenience. <P>SOLUTION: Whether information is utilized or its use is limited from the secrecy property of the information transmission history is evaluated from the history and information. When it is judged that its use must be limited, the use of the information transmission history is limited to limit the use of the information transmission history effectively in order to protect privacy and transmit information effectively. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2003,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information transmission function for performing automatic selection or other utilization in accordance with a user's preference by utilizing a past history of a user who has retrieved information, or information for receiving such information. The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus having a reception function, and more particularly to an information processing apparatus that uses an information transfer history while protecting the confidentiality of the receiver in the information transfer history.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art It is important for an information processing apparatus having an information transmitting function or an information receiving function to provide accurate information to a person who needs the information. For that purpose, a method of holding a history of information requested by the user in the past and automatically estimating and transmitting information required in the future from the history is effective.

As an example of such a device, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-142
907 "Internet Profiling System"
(Hereinafter referred to as Document 1). This prior art is characterized by defining the user profile by evaluating the length of time the user has interacted with the web content item on the Internet.

In such a system, since information indicating what kind of content the user has accessed is left, the privacy of the user may be violated. On the other hand, in the above-mentioned conventional technique, the following measures are attempted. (1) Install an identity information firewall to prevent identity information from leaking outside. (Paragraph Nos. 0033 to 0035 of Document 1) (2) Allow the user to select web behavior data to be recorded according to his / her preference. (Paragraph number 0491 part of Document 1) (3) The access including the keyword specified by the user is not recorded. (Paragraph numbers 0492 to 0496 of Reference 1
Part) Similarly, as an example in consideration of privacy, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-345
248 There is an "information transmission system" (hereinafter referred to as reference 2). In this conventional technique, profile information other than the one for which disclosure permission has been obtained according to the user's operation is kept secret and is not disclosed, thereby protecting privacy.

[0005]

As described above, in the conventional technique, privacy-related information such as access history is not output at all, or is not recorded in the history record according to the selection criterion of the information including the keyword designated by the user. And protect your privacy. However, as the broadband Internet spreads and more data can be easily accessed, it is difficult for the user to specify all the keywords that the user wants to keep secret. Therefore, the usage history may not be used at all, or a situation may occur in which the privacy of the user is ignored and used, which may cause a problem in terms of user convenience and privacy protection.

[0006]

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to solve the problems,
According to the present invention, the information processing apparatus evaluates from the history or information whether to use or restrict the use of the information due to the confidentiality of the information transmission history, and when it is determined that the use should be restricted, the information is processed. Restrict the use of transmission history. Since the information processing device determines from the information content of the history and the like, it is possible to effectively limit the use of information and solve the problem. Generally, among the history information, the information that the user wants to keep secret is limited. For example, you may leave a record of access to information on politics in general, but keep the record of access to information of individual politicians confidential. It is possible to evaluate. Further, even when the user specifies, the content is not specified to include the keyword but the content such as characters associated with the keyword is included, so that the privacy can be more effectively protected. By performing such processing, it becomes possible to perform effective information transmission using the information transmission history and other processing while protecting privacy more effectively.

[0007]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an information processing apparatus having an information transmission function according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, the information processing device 1 includes an information providing unit 11, a control unit 12, a history holding unit 13, a history statistics creating unit 14, a history confidentiality evaluating unit 15 that is a history restriction evaluating unit for evaluating use restriction, and a history. History for evaluating the use restriction of statistics History statistical confidentiality evaluation means 16, which is the means for evaluating statistical usage, history utilization means 17, recipient personal database 18, which is personal information storage means for storing the personal information of the recipient, history Usage compensation means 19, output terminal of information transfer history or information transfer history statistics
51, terminal 52 for outputting information, terminal 53 for inputting an instruction signal
Consists of. Through the information receiving device 101, the information receiver 111 instructs the information processing device 1 about information to be received from the terminal 53. In response to this instruction, the control means 12 selects the information specified by the information providing means 11 and outputs it to the information receiving device 101 from the terminal 52, thereby transmitting it to the information receiver 111. At that time, the history holding means indicates which information is instructed.
Remember in 13.

Various forms of the information transmission history stored in the history holding means 13 can be considered.

For example, an information transmission history for each information receiver. As other examples, the personal information of the information receiver, the type of information transmitted, the time of information transmission, the information receiving device that received the information, the place where the information was received, or the information receiver The information transmission history for each information receiver classified by the confidentiality standard indicated by or the character string associated with the keyword indicated by the information receiver. further,
As another example, an information transmission history for each arbitrarily selected information recipient group. And as another example,
Information transmission history of all information recipients. Yet another example is an element that includes a combination of these. Furthermore, as another example, there are results obtained by processing these by a statistical method.

The history information stored in the history holding unit 13 is evaluated by the history confidentiality evaluation unit 15 for the degree of history confidentiality. For the confidentiality evaluation, the personal information of the recipient stored in the recipient personal information database 18 is referred to as necessary.

In an example of evaluating confidentiality based on the personal information of the information receiver, for example, the confidentiality is high for females, low for males, or high for high frequency of information reception. , The confidentiality is low when the frequency of information reception is low, or the confidentiality is high when there is a large history of purchasing goods as a result of information reception, and the confidentiality is low when the history of purchasing goods is low as a result of information reception. Alternatively, the confidentiality can be evaluated based on a criterion such as that the confidentiality is high if there is an inquiry about the confidentiality before and the confidentiality is low if there is no inquiry about the confidentiality before.

Further, in an example of evaluating confidentiality according to the type of transmitted information, for example, confidentiality is high in information transmission concerning individual politicians, low confidentiality in information transmission concerning general politics, or high value products. High confidentiality in information transmission, low confidentiality in information transmission about low-priced products, or high confidentiality in providing information with many information transmission requests (requests), and few information transmission requests (requests) The confidentiality is low when providing information that does not exist, or the confidentiality is high when providing information about a specific country, and the confidentiality is low when providing information about another country, or the confidentiality is provided when providing information for a specific age. The confidentiality can be evaluated based on a criterion such as that the confidentiality is high and the confidentiality is low when the information is provided to other ages or the information applicable to any age is low.

In the example in which the confidentiality is evaluated by the time of information transmission, for example, the access from midnight to before 6:00 am is highly confidential because it is highly likely that it is being viewed by an individual, and other than that. Is less confidential about the time of day,
The confidentiality can be evaluated by the judgment criteria such as.

In the example in which the confidentiality is evaluated by the information receiving device that has received the information transmission, for example, the access from the portable terminal is highly confidential because it is highly likely that the individual is watching the access, and the stationary device. The confidentiality can be evaluated based on a criterion such as low confidentiality for access from.

In the example of evaluating the confidentiality depending on the place where the information has been transmitted, for example, the access from the network targeting the individual is highly confidential because it is highly likely that the individual is watching. The confidentiality can be evaluated based on a criterion such as low confidentiality with respect to access from corporations such as public offices.

In the example in which the confidentiality is evaluated by the confidentiality standard indicated by the information receiver, a combination of the above-mentioned evaluation standards is used.
Alternatively, there is an instruction or the like in which an evaluation value is specified by the above evaluation criteria. For example, there is a case in which it is desired to highly evaluate the confidentiality of receiving information regarding a particular politician in the history of information transmission regarding an individual politician.

In the example of evaluating the confidentiality by the character string associated with the keyword indicated by the information receiver, for example,
If you specify the keyword politics, the government, political parties,
Access to information including character strings associated with politics, such as policies, is highly confidential, and for others, confidentiality can be evaluated low.

It is also possible to perform a comprehensive confidentiality evaluation by digitizing the confidentiality evaluation as described above and performing statistical processing such as the sum or average thereof.

For example, based on the confidentiality evaluation criteria as shown in FIG. 2, the recipient's sex, access time, access location,
When the confidentiality comprehensive evaluation is performed by evaluating the items of access information and averaging them, the recipients as shown in FIG.
The confidentiality of A and B can be evaluated respectively. The overall confidentiality evaluation of A is 0.3, and the overall confidentiality evaluation of B is 0.75. Here, if the history is used when the confidentiality comprehensive evaluation is 0.5 or less, the history use determination result of the receiver A is acceptable and the history use determination result of the recipient B is not acceptable.

As another evaluation method, it is possible to digitize the above-mentioned confidentiality evaluation and perform the confidentiality evaluation for each item.

For example, when the confidentiality is evaluated for each item based on the confidentiality evaluation standard as shown in FIG. 2, the confidentiality items of the recipients A and B can be evaluated as shown in FIG. . If the history is used when the evaluation is 0.5 or less, all the items of the gender, access time, access location, and provided information are available for the recipient A, and the recipient B can use the history. As for the history use determination result of, only the access time item can be used.

Further, as another evaluation method, the confidentiality evaluation can be performed by referring to the information of the individual recipient stored in the individual recipient information database 18.

For example, when the contract contents as shown in FIG. 5 are stored in the recipient personal information database 18, the confidentiality is evaluated according to the type of contract contents of the recipient individual.
In contract A, all items of gender, access time, access location, and provided information can be used, in contract B, 2 items of gender and access time can be used, and in contract C, all items can be used It becomes impossible. Here, the relationship between the charges for each contract is: contract C> contract B> contract A.

By making such a judgment and using the history, it is possible to recommend and provide information using the history and to use the history without giving the viewer the feeling that the privacy is violated. Can be done.

Regarding the setting of the evaluation point of the history confidentiality evaluation means 15 described above, it may be configured so that it can be set by both the information provider and the information receiver.

The history information of the history holding means 13 is subjected to history statistical processing by the history statistics creating means 14. In the statistical processing of the history holding means 13 described above, the statistical processing is performed for one reception of information, whereas the statistical processing of the history statistics creating means 14 is performed in the past information reception history and the recipient personal information database. Perform statistical processing by referring to. As the statistical population, various factors related to confidentiality described in the operation of the history confidentiality evaluation means 15 can be selected. For example, characteristics such as gender of the information receiver, information acquisition time zone, device that received the information, place where the information was received,
It is possible to determine a population based on the confidentiality standard indicated by the information receiver, a character string associated with the keyword indicated by the information receiver, and calculate the access frequency in the population. For the statistical processing result, history statistical confidentiality evaluation means 16
Appropriate evaluation will be made in to decide whether history can be used.

For example, the history statistics creating means 14 calculates the audience rating of certain political information for each age group of the viewer. At this time, the information in the recipient personal information database 18 may be referred to. As a result, history information such as other information recommendations will not be used for viewers in the age group with an audience rating of 1.5% or less. FIG. 6 shows an example of the result of statistical processing. It shows the audience rating of certain information that is generally classified as politics, and the audience rating of all subscribers excluding teens is 1.5% or more. Therefore, it is common for viewers other than teens to see certain information classified as political in general, and even if other political information is recommended using this history, the history will not be used. It is hard to be aware of it. In such a case, the history statistical confidentiality evaluation means 16 judges that the history is available.

On the other hand, among the teenage contractors, only 1% watched this information, and it cannot be said that viewing this information is common to teenage viewers. If you use the to recommend other political information, you are likely to be aware that you are using your own information transfer history. In such a case, by not recommending other information from the information transmission history, it is possible to recommend the information using the history without giving the viewer the consciousness that the information transmission history is used. You can provide and use other history.

Another example is shown in FIG. This example shows a statistical process when one recipient views a plurality of pieces of information with different confidentiality evaluations. Assume that the confidentiality evaluation information of 0.1 to 0.7 is viewed at the frequencies shown on the vertical axis, and the average value 0.43 of the evaluation values can be calculated by statistical processing. At this time, if the historical use judgment criterion is the average value, the average value 0.43
The following information transmission history of confidentiality evaluation can be used.

Based on the information transmission history confidentiality evaluation result obtained by the history confidentiality evaluation unit 15 and the information transmission history statistical confidentiality evaluation result obtained by the history statistical confidentiality evaluation unit 16, the operation of the history utilization unit 17 To decide. For example, if the history is equal to or less than the predetermined confidentiality evaluation value, information related to the information is recommended or transmitted to the information receiver as recommended information. As an example of this, other politicians who are evaluated as highly confidential, although other political related information is recommended to information recipients who have been provided with general political information that is evaluated as low confidentiality. It is possible to select the action of not recommending other political information to the information receiver who has been provided with the information. By performing such switching, the information receiver can receive information recommendation or information transmission without feeling uncomfortable that his / her information reception history is used. The new information provided as the recommended information is provided to the information receiver 111 by obtaining the information from the information providing means 11 as needed through the control means 12.

The history utilization means 17 can also be configured to notify the information receiver 111 of the utilization status of the information reception history for the provided information by the control means 12.

For example, the information receiver 111 who has received the information of the individual politicians who are evaluated to have high confidentiality is shown in FIG.
As shown in (a), a message such as "Privacy information from this access will not be used." Is displayed on the screen being viewed. The information receiver 111 who has received the information of the top news of the day, which is evaluated to have low confidentiality, is shown in FIG.
As shown in (b), "Privacy information by this access is used. Gender / access time / access location / provided information" is displayed on the screen being viewed. By performing such a display, the information receiver can confirm the usage status of his or her information reception history, and thus can receive information provision with peace of mind. Further, by checking such information, it can be used as a reference when the recipient changes the evaluation score of the history confidentiality evaluation means 15.

Alternatively, the information transfer history and the information transfer history statistics are output from the output terminal 51 of the information transfer history or the information transfer history statistics to the outside based on the information transfer history confidentiality evaluation result and the information transfer history statistics confidentiality evaluation result. It is also possible to do. Externally, the history information can be reused by using these pieces of information for selecting a direct mail destination.
For example, information recipients who have been provided with general political information that is considered to have low confidentiality will be sent a direct mail to purchase other political books, but It is possible to use the history that the information recipient who receives the information of the politician does not send the direct mail urging the purchase of other political books. By performing such switching, the information receiver can receive new information by reusing history information without feeling uncomfortable that his or her information reception history is used.

Further, with respect to the used history, the history use compensation means 19 returns appropriate compensation to the viewer,
It is possible to alleviate the viewer's discomfort regarding the use of the confidential history and further promote viewing. For example,
As shown in FIG. 3, in the case of the comprehensive confidentiality evaluation of the receiver A of 0.3 and the confidentiality comprehensive evaluation of the receiver B of 0.75, whether or not the history can be used is not decided by this, but compensation proportional to the comprehensive confidentiality evaluation value is made. Is returned to the receiver in the form of money or a discount of the information reception fee, it becomes possible to use the viewing history without causing any discomfort to the viewer even when the confidentiality comprehensive evaluation value is high. It is also possible to have a configuration in which whether to select compensation or history availability is determined by the user's judgment. In addition, it is possible to use a history usage compensator to make a calculation that discounts the reception fee for the recipients who use the history a lot, and the recipient who uses the history a lot can receive a higher discount on the information reception fee. Is.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an information processing apparatus having an information receiving function according to another embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, the parts indicated by the same numbers as those in FIG. 1 perform the same operations as the corresponding parts in FIG. 1, and the description of the operations and effects that are the same as those in FIG. 1 will be omitted.
The feature of this embodiment is that the information transmitting side configures the information processing device 1 in the embodiment of FIG. 1, but in the present embodiment,
The difference is that the information processing device 201 is configured on the information receiving side. Further, the information processing apparatus 201 is additionally provided with a hard disk for recording information received data, an information storage means 20 of a storage medium such as an optical disk, a terminal 54 for inputting information, and a terminal 55 for outputting an instruction signal. .

The information storage means 20 can also store all information transmission history in addition to the information received data. By accumulating such information transmission history, instead of outputting the history information to the information providing side every time information is received, for example, when the monthly contract fee is settled, the information transmission history for one month is received. It is also possible for a person to check and output. By temporarily storing the information transmission history in the storage medium in this manner, it is possible to check the information transmission history of oneself, and thus it is possible to receive the information provision with confidence.

History statistics creating means 14 in the present embodiment
It is also possible to perform statistical processing by all users who use the information processing apparatus 201, instead of performing statistical processing by all contractors as shown in FIG. For example, if the home has the information processing apparatus 201, the statistical processing can be performed from the history information of the whole family. Similarly, for the recipient personal information database 18, the information processing device 20
By being managed by the user who uses 1, it becomes possible to refer to the history statistics creation means 14, the history confidentiality evaluation means 15, and the history statistics confidentiality evaluation means 16.

In the above-mentioned embodiment, the use restriction is judged from the confidentiality of the information, but these are judged not based on the confidentiality of the information itself, but also based on the contract content or the like. It goes without saying that the use of information is restricted.

[0040]

As described above, according to the present invention, since it is possible to use the history in consideration of the confidentiality of the information transmission history, privacy protection effective for the information transmission side and the information receiver side. The information transmission side can effectively transmit the information by using the history, and the information receiver side can transmit the information with improved convenience.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a first embodiment of an information processing apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an example of a confidentiality evaluation standard of the information processing apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a first example of a confidentiality evaluation result and a history use determination result of the information processing device according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a second example of a confidentiality evaluation result and a history use determination result of the information processing device according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a third example of the confidentiality evaluation result and the history use determination result of the information processing device according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a first example of a confidentiality evaluation result and a history use determination result by statistical processing of the information processing apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a second example of the confidentiality evaluation result and the history use determination result by the statistical processing of the information processing apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 8 is an example of a usage status display of reception history information of the information processing apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing a second embodiment of the information processing apparatus according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1, 201 ... Information processing device. 11 ... Information providing means. 12 ... Control means. 13 ... History holding means 14 ... History statistics creating means. 15 ... History confidentiality evaluation means. 16 ... History statistical confidentiality evaluation means. 17 ... History utilization means. 18 ... Recipient personal information database. 19 ... History utilization compensation means. 20 ... Information storage means. 21 ... Preference judging means. 51 ... Output terminal for information transfer history or information transfer history statistics.

Claims (11)

[Claims] 1. An information providing unit for providing information to a recipient, a history holding unit for holding a history of information provision to the recipient, and a history holding unit based on the history held by the history holding unit. History usage restriction evaluation means for evaluating usage restriction of history of means, and history usage restriction evaluation means for deciding whether or not the history can be used based on the history usage restriction evaluation means, and history for using the history when the history is available An information processing apparatus comprising: a utilization unit. 2. The history use restriction evaluation means is a confidentiality evaluation means for evaluating the confidentiality of the information provided based on the history held in the history holding means, and the history use means is the confidentiality. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein use of a history that is judged to be highly confidential by the evaluation means is restricted. 3. The personal information storage means for storing personal information of the recipient, wherein the history usage restriction evaluation means stores the personal information of the recipient based on the personal information and the history of the personal information storage means. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the use restriction property of the history is evaluated. 4. A history statistics creating means for creating statistical information of history from the personal information stored in the personal information storing means and the history stored in the history holding means, and a history created by the history statistics creating means. A history statistical use restriction evaluating unit that evaluates the use restriction of statistical information, and the history using unit determines whether or not the history can be used based on the history statistical use restriction evaluating unit. The information processing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the history is used when it can be used. 5. The history statistic use restriction means is a history statistic confidentiality evaluation means for evaluating the confidentiality of information provided based on the history held in the history holding means, and the history use means is 5. The information processing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the history statistical information confidentiality evaluation means limits the use of the history that is judged to have high confidentiality of the historical statistical information. 6. A notification means for notifying the receiver that the history is used when the history is used by the history using means.
The information processing device according to any one of 1. 7. The history use compensating means for calculating a discounted reception fee for a recipient who has a high history utilization rate by the history utilizing means, according to any one of claims 1 to 6. The information processing device described. 8. The history use restriction evaluation means evaluates the history use restriction property based on at least one piece of information of the time when the recipient accessed the information and the content of the accessed information. The information processing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 7, which is characterized. 9. The personal information storage means has reception fee information contracted by the receiver, and the history use restriction evaluation means changes the judgment of history limitation based on the reception fee information. The information processing apparatus according to any one of claims 3 to 8, wherein: 10. The history use restriction evaluation means, the sex of the recipient stored in the personal information storage means, the place where the information is accessed, the content of information expected from the keyword designated by the recipient, The information processing apparatus according to any one of claims 3 to 9, wherein the use restriction property of the history is evaluated by using at least one or more pieces of information. 11. The history statistical use restriction evaluation means evaluates the use restriction of history statistical information based on the age of the recipient and the statistical result of the history stored in the personal information storage means. The information processing apparatus according to any one of claims 3 to 10, which is characterized.