Abstract:
A system and method for providing incentives to consumers to share their consumer information with third parties is provided. According to one aspect of the present invention, a method is provided which includes the steps of: accepting consumer information; storing the consumer information; requesting permission from the consumer to share their consumer information with a third party; and offering the consumer a selected incentive in exchange for their permission to share their consumer information.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS  
       [0001]    The present application is a divisional of, and claims priority to, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/287,558 entitled “System and Method for Providing Incentives to Consumers to Share Information” filed on Nov. 5, 2002 to Shelley F. Sanders et al., the contents of which are incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. 
     
    
     FIELD OF THE INVENTION  
       [0002]    The invention relates to the field of financial or other accounts, and more particularly to a platform for permitting an individual to allow the sharing of personal information derived from an account with third party companies and other institutions, at selectable levels of their choosing. 
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0003]    Financial companies and other institutions, such as credit card companies, increasingly leverage the business value of their accounts and customer base beyond the fees derived from transactions on the accounts themselves. One example of such a technique arises when a first financial institution or other entity provides access to its customer database to a second institution, for marketing or other purposes. The second institution may mine that database to find candidate customers, test price points, determine geographic patterns and perform other research and marketing tasks. 
         [0004]    However, because some consumers may be uncomfortable with the fact that they often possess little or no control over their private financial and other information contained in any number of databases, various privacy laws have been enacted controlling the sharing of personal information. Such information may include a person&#39;s private information such as name, address, age, social security number and other information, financial information such as existing credit accounts, existing balances, credit histories, income and other information, and medical information such as current health status, policy coverage, pre-existing conditions and other data. 
         [0005]    One example of current privacy laws is Regulation P promulgated by the Federal Reserve, which in part requires that when a potential credit consumer seeks to open a credit account, the financial institution taking that application must inform that applicant that the applicant has a right to prevent that institution from sharing their personal information with third parties. The applicant is thus given the opportunity to opt out from allowing the financial or other institution to share their financial and other information with other companies and institutions. This option may also be presented to existing customers of a credit or other institution. 
         [0006]    Privacy policies such as these have market consequences. For example, among all new applicants for new accounts that are informed of their ability to opt out from the sharing of their financial information, some percentage may end the application process at that point before even making a choice about privacy settings. Some may do so because they do not believe that the financial or other institution taking their application will honor their obligation not to recirculate such information. The applicants who terminate the application may increase the new-account acquisition costs for the financial or other institution. 
         [0007]    Moreover, of the remaining customers that choose to continue the application process, another significant percentage will in fact opt out, thereby preventing the acquiring institution from sharing the customer&#39;s information with other institutions. Again, the applicant&#39;s or existing account holder&#39;s opting out reduces the institution&#39;s ability to leverage its customer database. At present, almost forty percent of account holders are choosing to opt out of privacy sharing for their accounts. 
         [0008]    These and other drawbacks exist in the handling of privacy-protected accounts. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0009]    The present invention overcomes these and other problems in the art by providing a system and method for a selectable privacy account wherein customers are provided with an array of privacy options which may be associated with a corresponding array of account benefits and features. For instance, according to an embodiment of the invention an applicant who is willing to accept a comparatively larger degree of sharing of their personal or account information may receive an adjusted interest rate, annual fee, bonus point eligibility or other account attribute. Customers may thus be permitted to customize their privacy levels, with corresponding account attributes. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0010]      FIG. 1  depicts a flow chart representing a method of implementing the invention according to an embodiment of the invention. 
           [0011]      FIG. 2  illustrates a representation of a hierarchical organizational structure according to an embodiment of the invention. 
           [0012]      FIG. 3  illustrates a representation of a hierarchical organizational structure according to an embodiment of the invention. 
           [0013]      FIG. 4  depicts a flow chart representing a method of implementing the present invention according to an embodiment of the invention. 
           [0014]      FIG. 5  illustrates a representation of a hierarchical organizational structure according to an embodiment of the invention. 
           [0015]      FIG. 6  depicts a flow chart representing a method of implementing the present invention according to an embodiment of the invention. 
           [0016]      FIG. 7  illustrates an example of links which may be located within a link file according to the present invention. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
       [0017]    The invention in one regard relates to a system and method for permitting a new-account applicant or an existing customer or account holder to select variable levels of sharing of their account or other personal information in a dynamic manner. The use of the systems and methods of the present invention are also applicable to other systems and methods for convincing consumers to allow for the sharing of their personal information with other parties. 
         [0018]    A first preferred embodiment of the present invention will now be discussed with reference to  FIG. 1 . As shown in  FIG. 1 , a financial or other institution may take an application for a financial or other type of account, in step  102 . During an application process according to an embodiment of the invention, as shown in step  104 , a customer service representative may determine whether an applicant wishes to share their private financial or other information. The customer service representative may, for instance, communicate with the applicant via telephone, such as from a call center, or via Internet messaging or other channels. If the applicant is willing to share this information without prompting or motivation, there may be no need to present them with account incentives to do so. 
         [0019]    If on the other hand, as shown in step  106 , the applicant wishes to terminate the application process without completing the application, or simply does not wish to allow the institution to which it is applying to share their private and financial information with other entities, according to the invention an attempt may be made to present that applicant with selectable levels of privacy in exchange for modified or enhanced account attributes, such as differential interest rates, annual or other fees, rewards points or other attributes. In another embodiment, all applicants may be presented with selectable privacy levels with corresponding account or other attributes. 
         [0020]    As shown in step  108  in  FIG. 2 , according to the invention a decision tree or matrix may be used to evaluate the financial institution&#39;s level of interest in motivating the applicant to not exercise their ability to opt out of the sharing of their private and financial information. As shown in  FIG. 2 , a top-down tree may include a category labeled “Level Of Interest.” The “Level Of Interest” category may be divided into sub-categories, such as “High,” “Average,” “Low” and “Zero.” Each of these sub-categories may have a weight or other value associated with them, which reflects the financial institution&#39;s level of interest in motivating the customer to participate by offering discounts to the fees and rates the financial institution charges its customers. 
         [0021]    For example, the sub-category “High” may have an assigned weight of 0.8. The weight of 0.8 may represent the value that the sum of all the weights assigned to various incentives offered to the applicant in order to motivate them to participate, may not exceed. Similarly, the primary sub-categories “Average,” “Low,” and “Zero” might have associated values of 0.4, 0.2 and 0, respectively. These values also equal the value that the sum of all the weights assigned to the various incentives offered to the applicant in order to motivate them to participate, or to participate at a desired level of privacy, may not exceed. 
         [0022]    Assuming that the financial institution set its “Level Of Interest” factor at “Average” or 0.4, the customer representative communicating with the customer would be free to offer that applicant any number of incentives so long as the sum of all the weights associated with each incentive did not exceed 0.4. 
         [0023]    One aspect of the invention involves an organizational structure, which may have both a top-down taxonomy and a bottom-up taxonomy. The organizational structure stores and classifies information, such as weights or incentives. According to an embodiment of the invention, an organizational structure may be a hierarchical, relational or other database. 
         [0024]    As discussed above, each “Level Of Interest” has a weight assigned to it, which allows the financial institution to assign a value representing how large of an incentive package it is willing to offer an applicant so that the applicant may participate. An organizational structure setting forth each level of interest may be created. And a link file may direct a processor to translate information from data sources, such as internal reports, into the organizational structure thereby allowing the financial institution to properly set the weight associated with each “Level Of Interest,” as well as setting the actual “Level Of Interest” weight to be used in motivating an applicant to share their private and financial information. 
         [0025]    As shown in  FIG. 1 , after the system determines what the financial institution&#39;s “Level Of Interest” is in motivating the applicant to participate, the system, in step  110 , prompts the customer service representative with a listing of what categories of incentives are available to the applicant so as to motivate the applicant to participate. As shown in  FIG. 3 , an example decision tree which may be used by the customer representative is provided. The top-down decision tree in  FIG. 3  may be created based on incentive and weight information. For instance, as shown in  FIG. 3 , the decision tree may comprise a category labeled “Incentives.” The “Incentives” category may be divided into sub-categories, such as “Discount Rate Charged,” “Reduce Amount Of Minimum Payment,” “Discount Yearly Fee,” “Enhance Rewards Program” or others. These sub-categories may in turn be divided into further sub-categories. For example, the sub-category “Discount Rate Charged” may contain the sub-categories entitled “Premier Discounted Rate,” “Average Discounted Rate,” and “Slightly Discounted Rate.” 
         [0026]    The sub-category may also have multiple sub-categories containing various information that allows a determination of how to incent an applicant to participate in information sharing. For example, the secondary sub-category entitled “Premium Discount Rate” may have a sub-category entitled “Incentive Weight” associated with it as well as another sub-category entitled “Rate Discount.” For example, the “Premier Discounted Rate” might have an associated “Incentive Weight” of 0.4, and a discount rate equal, for example, to the normal account rate minus 2%. 
         [0027]    Another example of possible sub-categories can be illustrated by examining the sub-category entitled “Discount Yearly Fee.” Its associated sub-categories could be entitled “Premier Fee Discount,” “Average Fee Discount,” and “Slight Fee Discount.” Similar to the sub-categories discussed above, the “Average Fee Discount” could have associated further sub-categories entitled “Incentive Weight” and “Fee” which have an associated weight of 0.4, and a fee equal to the normal annual fee minus $30, or another amount, respectively. 
         [0028]    In the example of the hierarchical organizational structure above, it may be determined that additional discounts are being considered or offered, but which do not fit under any of the sub-categories currently in use. The organizational structure may be altered to create a new sub-category as needed, which would be labeled to fit the new incentives. Doing so creates a more accurate structure for motivating applicants to allow various institutions to share their personal information with other parties. When modifying the organizational structure, categories and sub-categories of any level may be added, deleted, or merged as appropriate. 
         [0029]    According to a further preferred embodiment of the invention, after the system prompts the customer service representative with a listing of categories of incentives that are available to the applicant, the customer service representative, as shown in  FIG. 1 , step  112 , may ask the applicant which of the available incentives would keep them from opting out from allowing the institution to share their private and financial information. As shown in step  114 , if the applicant stated that they were interested in for instance the “Discount Rate Charged” incentive, the customer service representative would inform them that they were eligible for the “Premier Discounted Rate” since its weight equals but does not exceed the weight of the financial institution&#39;s motivation, i.e., 0.4. The customer service representative would then inform the customer that they were eligible for a rate discount of 2% or another amount less than the financial institution&#39;s normal rate. 
         [0030]    If that incentive sufficiently motivated the applicant to agree to allow the financial institution to share their private and financial information with other financial institutions, then the application process would proceed to completion. However, if the applicant was still not motivated to allow the financial institution to share their private and financial information, the customer service representative would then inform the applicant that they could instead choose the “Discount Yearly Fee” incentive. And since the weight of the financial institution&#39;s “Level Of Interest” was 0.4, the applicant was eligible for the “Premier Fee Discount” of $75 less than the financial institution&#39;s normal yearly fee, since that incentive&#39;s associated weight was also 0.4. If the “Discount Yearly Fee” incentive sufficiently motivated the applicant to allow the financial institution to share their private and financial information with other financial institutions, the application process would then proceed to completion. 
         [0031]    Many permutations of the above discussed incentives could also be offered to the applicant. For example, if either the “Discount Credit Rate” or the “Discount Yearly Fee” incentives in and of themselves did not sufficiently motivate the applicant to participate, the customer service representative can still continue to negotiate with the applicant so as to motivate them to participate. For example, the customer service representative would inform the applicant that they were eligible for an “Average Discounted Rate” of 1% less then the company&#39;s normal rate charged, plus an “Average Fee Discount” of $30 off the fee the company normally charged its customer. Both of these incentives would be available to the applicant because each has an associated weight of 0.2, and the sum of their associated weights equals 0.4, which does not exceed the weight assigned to the financial institution&#39;s “Average” “Level Of Interest” in keeping the applicant from opting out. 
         [0032]    In another embodiment of the invention as shown in  FIG. 4 , if after exhausting all permutations of available incentives for a given “Level Of Interest” the applicant, as shown in step  402  still wished to opt out of allowing the financial institution to share their private and financial information with other institutions, the customer service representative as shown in step  404 , may attempt to motivate the customer to participate by explaining that if the customer allowed only a portion of their private information to be shared, they could still receive certain differential or other benefits. If as shown in step  406  the applicant wishes to hear the other available incentives, the system determines as shown in step  408  what the financial institution&#39;s “Limited Level Of Interest” is in motivating the applicant to share even just a limited amount of personal information. For example, after the applicant informed the customer service representative that they still wanted to decline to share information, the system would determine what the “Limited Level Of Interest” was for gaining permission to share only limited information. 
         [0033]    According to a preferred embodiment, the system may use a top-down decision tree as shown in  FIG. 5  to determine the financial institution&#39;s “Limited Level Of Interest” in motivating the applicant to at least share a partial amount of their personal information. As further shown in  FIG. 5 , a top-down decision tree may comprise a category labeled “Limited Level Of Interest.” And the “Limited Level Of Interest” category may be divided into various primary sub-categories, such as “High,” “Average,” and “Low.” Each of these primary sub-categories may then divided into various secondary sub-categories. 
         [0034]    For example, the primary sub-category entitled “High” will have a secondary sub-category entitled “Required Information” associated with it as well as another secondary sub-category entitled “Weight.” For example, a “High” “Limited Level Of Interest” might have an associated “Required Information” consisting of: name; social security number; address; and phone, and an associated “Weight” of 0.3. Similarly, an “Average” “Limited Level Of Interest” might have an associated “Required Information” consisting of: name; social security number; and address, and an associated “Weight” of 0.2, while a “Low” “Limited Level Of Interest” might have an associated “Required Information” consisting of just the applicant&#39;s name and social security number, and an associated “Weight” of 0.1. 
         [0035]    As discussed above, the “Weight” associated with each “Limited Level Of Interest” represents the value that the sum of all the weights assigned to various incentives offered to the applicant in order to motivate the applicant to share a limited amount of personal information, can not exceed. As shown in  FIG. 4 , step  410 , depending on the financial institution&#39;s “Limited Level Of Interest” and its associated “Weight,” the system will prompt the customer service representative with the categories of incentives that are available to the applicant. And as shown in step  412 , after the customer service representative listed the available incentives, and the customer service representative detailed the types and levels of incentives available to applicant as shown in step  414 , the customer service representative would then, as shown in step  416 , detail for the applicant the type of personal information required to qualify for the available incentives. 
         [0036]    For example, after the system determined that the financial institution&#39;s “Limited Level Of Interest” in obtaining partial amounts of personal information was “Low,” the customer service representative would inform the applicant that in order to qualify for any of the incentive(s) that equaled the weight of 0.1 the applicant would have to agree to allow the financial institution to share at least their name and social security number with third party financial institutions. However, if the financial institution&#39;s “Limited Level Of Interest” in acquiring the partial information were “High,” the weight of 0.3 would require that the applicant agree to allow to share, at least, for example, their name, social security number, address and phone number. 
         [0037]    As discussed above, the customer service representative might be able to offer varying permutations of incentives, so long as the sum of the assigned weight of all the incentives does not exceed the weight assigned to the financial institution&#39;s “Limited Level Of Interest.” 
         [0038]    According to a further preferred embodiment of the invention, the system and method of the present invention may further include steps to monitor the success in motivating applicants from not opting out, and making adjustments to its level of interest when needed. Accordingly, a company employing the present invention may adjust its factors for awarding incentives so to either decrease the number of applicants opting out, or to decrease the level of incentives it gives away. 
         [0039]    As shown in  FIG. 6 , monitoring the financial institution&#39;s success may begin as shown in step  602  by the financial institution setting the value of the Internal Goal according to any number of parameters. For example, if the financial institution did not offer any incentives to its applicants, its opt out rate may match that of the industry average. Because the inventive system and method allows the financial institution to induce individuals to participate by offering them incentives, the financial institution might set its Internal Goal of achieving an opt out rate of the average rate for the industry minus 10 percent, or another level. 
         [0040]    After setting the “Internal Goal,” the system and method may check the “Monitoring Value,” as shown in step  604 . The “Monitoring Value” may correspond to the number of individuals that exercise the opt out option. The greater the opt out rate, the higher the “Monitoring Value.” By keeping track of the rate at which applicants choose to not allow the financial institution to share their private and financial information with other financial institutions, that financial institution can determine whether it is meeting its “Internal Goal” of attracting applicants to participate. 
         [0041]    After the “Monitoring Value” is determined, as shown in step  606 , it may be compared to the value representing the financial institution&#39;s “Internal Goal” of motivating applicants to participate. By comparing the “Monitoring Value” to the “Internal Goal,” the financial institution can determine how aggressively it needs to offer incentives to applicants in order to motivate them to participate. For example, if the “Monitoring Value” is significantly greater than the amount the financial institution had set as its “Internal Goal,” it may elect to offer incentives more aggressively to applicants. Accordingly, if the “Level Of Interest” had been set at “Low,” in this instance the financial institution may reset it to “High” as shown in step  608 . Then as shown in step  610 , a period of time may pass before returning to step  604 . Setting the “Level Of Interest” to “High” allows the customer service representative to offer a large number of attractive incentives, such as, for example, both a “Premium Discount Credit Rate” along with a “Premier Fee Discount” since the sum of the respective weights equals the 0.8, the weight of the “High” “Level Of Interest.” 
         [0042]    Conversely, if the “Monitoring Value” is averaging closer to the “Internal Goal,” then the institution may have the flexibility as shown in step  612  of decreasing the weight of the “Level Of Interest” before returning to step  610 . The weight of the “Level Of Interest” could be set to “Zero,” which results in the weight also being set to 0.0. Doing so may prevent the customer service representative from offering any incentives, thereby saving the financial institution the cost associated with giving away each and every incentive. 
         [0043]    In accordance with a further preferred embodiment of the invention, the financial institution can set these values on an hourly, daily, weekly, monthly or other dynamic basis. For example, a financial institution might set a goal that it would achieve a specified opt out rate averaged over an entire month. Therefore, it might start out at Day 1 with its “Internal Goal” set at a relatively conservative amount, with the hope that its customer service representatives would be able to convince the remaining to participate while at the same time not offering any incentives for allowing the sharing of their private and financial information. For instance, the financial institution might set its “Level Of Interest” to “Zero” at that early point in the month. 
         [0044]    Thereafter, if on Day 10 the financial institution determined that the “Monitoring Value” was averaging less than the desired amount, it may increase the weight of the “Level Of Interest” so as to motivate the applicants to participate more freely. Then if on Day 24 the financial institution determined that the “Monitoring Value” averaged greater than the desired amount over the past twenty-three days and it appeared that it would meet its “Internal Goal”, it could readjust the “Level Of Interest” to a weight that would ensure that the financial institution would meet its “Internal Goal” on the last day of the month, while reducing the amount of incentives provided to applicants in that interval, thereby reducing expense. 
         [0045]    According to an embodiment of the invention, multiple information storage devices may be used to receive appropriate information. Accordingly, the negotiating information discussed above, including for example the incentives, level of interest, internal goals and the monitoring value, may be received in an information storage device from a plurality of separate sources. Further, a link file may be used to access the negotiating information from a information storage device and to place it into an organizational structure. According to an embodiment of the invention, a link file may include a plurality of instructions. These instructions may, for example, direct a processor to compare the level of interest in a predetermined location in an organizational structure to the weight of an incentive in a predetermined location in an organizational structure. Thus according to an embodiment of the invention, a link file may comprise a number of links to place information in appropriate location(s) within an organizational structure. Accordingly, information may be placed within appropriate categories and sub-categories of an organizational structure, such as a hierarchical tree in a relational database, or other resource. 
         [0046]      FIG. 7  illustrates an example of links which may be located within a link file and which may be used to place negotiating information into an organizational structure. As shown, links may comprise operator instructions, incentive code information, character instruction information, word string information, as well as other information. 
         [0047]    According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, operator instructions may direct a processor to perform a variety of operations for placing information within an organizational structure of the invention. A processor may search a negotiable information storage device, retrieve specified incentive information, and place the retrieved information in an organizational structure of the present invention. Incentive code information may indicate the incentive category or sub-category to assign the results of a particular operator instruction. Character instruction information may indicate the number of characters to access, while word-string information may indicate the particular character to access. Other interaction may also occur. 
         [0048]    According to an embodiment of the invention, operator instructions may instruct a processor to access information from a negotiation information storage device. Operator instructions may contain a plurality of instructions for a processor. Further, an operator instruction may include various components, including character matching, word matching, and duration of processing. Other operator components may also be used. 
         [0049]    According to an embodiment of the invention, character matching components may instruct a processor to search a negotiation information storage device by various character parameters. Character parameters may include, for example, searching column by column in an organizational structure for character matching, searching all of a column for two word matching, searching all of a column but the first word for matching, and other character parameters. 
         [0050]    Word matching components may instruct a processor to search for a specific word in a text-string in the incentive database. Word matching may include, for example, matching a particular word, matching two words and searching the entire column, searching for two words but searching all but the first word, and searching for a specific city and/or state. Other word matching instructions may also be used. 
         [0051]    Length of processing components may direct a processor to end processing. Accordingly, length of processing instructions may instruct a transaction processor to stop after finding a first match, stop after finding a predetermined number of matches, or look for all matches within an incentive database. Other length of processing instructions may also be used. 
         [0052]    It will be appreciated that the system for implementing the invention may constitute a variety of different components and/or configurations. Separate devices may be used to implement each function. According to an embodiment of the invention, a computer processing unit may be configured to implement the various aspects of the invention. Other components, configurations, or combinations thereof may also be used. 
         [0053]    The invention has been described in reference to a credit institution negotiating with individuals applying for credit with that credit institution, whereby the credit institution may negotiate with applicants that decline to allow the financial institution with which they are applying to share their private and financial information with other financial institutions, by offering those applicants incentives to allow such sharing of their private and financial information. However, individuals possess many types of information useful to institutions other than financial institutions and those types of information may also be processed according to the invention. 
         [0054]    For example, an individual may be hesitant to allow their health insurance company to share aspects of their private and medical information with other insurance carriers. The system and method could be applied to motivate either a person already insured or motivate an applicant for health insurance to allow the health insurance company to share their private and medical information with other heath insurance companies by offering incentives similar to the ones described above, as well as offering other types of incentives. Such incentives may include, for example, reducing the amount of the insured&#39;s annual deductible, reducing the amount of insured&#39;s co-pay, as well as other incentives. 
         [0055]    According to another embodiment of the invention, a computer usable medium having computer readable program code embodied therein for presenting table information in portions may be provided. For example, the computer usable medium may include a CD ROM, a floppy disk, a hard disk, or any other computer usable medium. One or more of the aspects of a system according to the present invention may comprise readable program code that is provided on the computer usable medium such that when the computer usable medium is installed on a computer system, those modules cause the computer system to perform the functions described. 
         [0056]    These and other embodiments and uses of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art from consideration of the specification and practice of the invention disclosed herein. The specification and examples should be considered exemplary only. The scope of the invention is intended to be limited only by the claims appended hereto.