Privacy protection system and method

Abstract

A method and system for asserting control over and protecting the privacy of individuals' personal and transactional information, to prevent unauthorized use thereof, and permit limited use thereof, with compensation, to the extent permitted the individual. Privacy notices are given in printed and electronic form to other parties involved in the individuals' transactions. The individuals' own data are collected and maintained in a privacy trust database. On a voluntary basis, abstracted, anonymous profile information can be made available to advertisers, in exchange for compensation to the individuals. One use is in a content broadcasting system, where receipt of profile based viewer-specific commercial messages provide financial compensation for the cost of user-selected content received by the individual.

1 . (canceled) 
     
     
         2 . A method, comprising:
 providing broadband to a broadband subscriber;   digitally storing broadband subscriber information as protected information, wherein the protected information includes personal or transactional information about the broadband subscriber;   automatically coding a digital profile for the broadband subscriber using the protected information to create an abstracted profile code for the broadband subscriber using at least some of the protected information;   digitally storing the abstracted profile code of the broadband subscriber within the database;   asserting data ownership over the protected information for the broadband subscriber, including providing notice that the broadband subscriber is asserting data ownership over the protected information to entities capable of collecting data about the broadband subscriber from transactions, interactions or Internet activity, or capable of using or selling collected data about the broadband subscriber; and   providing the abstracted profile code to select entities.   
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , further comprising receiving consideration, to help pay for installation of the broadband to the broadband subscriber or to help toward a broadband subscription payment, from the select entities for allowing the select entities to use the abstracted profile code. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 2 , further comprising acquiring the subscriber information, wherein acquiring the subscriber information includes:
 receiving information from the broadband subscriber; and   allowing the broadband subscriber to view and edit the protected information.   
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 2 , further comprising acquiring the broadband subscriber information, wherein:
 acquiring the broadband subscriber information includes receiving information from the broadband subscriber and accessing third party information from other sources not directly provided by the broadband subscriber; and   automatically coding the digital profile for the broadband subscriber includes automatically coding the digital profile using both the information from the broadband subscriber and the third party information.   
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 2 , further comprising receiving instructions from the broadband subscriber for managing the protected information, wherein the instructions from the broadband subscriber includes instructions for sending notices to assert ownership over the protected information. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 2 , further comprising acquiring the broadband subscriber information, wherein acquiring the subscriber information includes delivering code for installation on an electronic device of the broadband subscriber, receiving broadband subscriber information from the electronic device operating on the installed code including receiving web-browsing activity using the electronic device, and digitally storing the broadband subscriber information received from the electronic device. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 2 , further comprising acquiring the broadband subscriber information, wherein acquiring the broadband subscriber information includes automatically receiving transaction information about purchases from the broadband subscriber. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein automatically receiving transaction information includes receiving transaction information from a financial institution. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein providing broadband includes providing broadband over fiber-optic cable or providing broadband over cable or providing broadband over another broadband transmission line. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein providing broadband includes providing wireless broadband. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein providing the abstracted profile code to select entities includes providing the abstracted profile code to select advertisers. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 12 , further comprising using an ad server to store a plurality of commercial messages and to use the abstracted profile code to target select commercial messages to the broadband subscriber. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 13 , further comprising receiving a target audience profile request and a compensation offer from one of the select advertisers, and developing a que of commercial messages based on the abstracted profiled code of the broadband subscriber, the target audience profile request and the compensation offer. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 13 , further comprising integrating the commercial messages from the que into content delivered to the broadband subscriber. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein asserting data ownership includes asserting data ownership over Internet activity. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16 , wherein providing notice includes providing electronic notice to warn others that data about the broadband subscriber is owned by the broadband subscriber. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the abstracted profile code represents demographic information for the broadband subscriber, financial information for the broadband subscriber, or both demographic and financial information for the broadband subscriber. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the protected information includes information pertaining to a wireless device used by the broadband subscriber. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the protected information includes personal information pertaining to an IP or other packet addressing scheme used to deliver content to the broadband subscriber. 
     
     
         21 . A method, comprising:
 acquiring subscriber information for a broadband subscriber, wherein acquiring the subscriber information includes:
 receiving information from the broadband subscriber; and 
 accessing third party information from other sources not directly provided by the broadband subscriber; 
   providing broadband to the broadband subscriber, wherein providing broadband includes providing wireless broadband or providing broadband over fiber-optic cable;   digitally storing subscriber information as protected information, wherein the protected information includes personal information pertaining to a use of a wireless device by the broadband subscriber or pertaining to an IP or other packet addressing scheme used to deliver content to the broadband subscriber, and wherein the protected information includes transactional information about the broadband subscriber;   automatically coding a digital profile for the broadband subscriber using the protected information to create an abstracted profile code for the broadband subscriber using at least some of the protected information including both the information received from the broadband subscriber and the third party information;   digitally storing the abstracted profile code of the HSB subscriber within the database;   asserting data ownership over the protected information for the broadband subscriber, including providing notice that the person is asserting data ownership over the protected information to entities capable of collecting data about the person from transactions, interactions or Internet activity, or capable of using or selling collected data about the broadband subscriber;   providing the abstracted profile code to select entities, wherein providing the abstracted profile code to select entities includes providing the abstracted profile code to select advertisers;   receiving a target audience profile request and a compensation offer from one of the select advertisers;   developing a que of commercial messages based on the abstracted profiled code of the broadband subscriber, the target audience profile request and the compensation offer;   integrating the commercial messages from the que into content delivered to the broadband subscriber; and   receiving consideration, to help pay for installation of the broadband to the broadband subscriber, from the select entities for allowing the select entities to use the abstracted profile code.