Patent Description:
A service provider for various services may make a request for various pieces of information to a user or receive the information so as to provide various services to the user, or a user may voluntarily provide various pieces of information to the service provider. However, such various pieces of information provided to the service provider by a user may include personal information that needs to be protected.

Regarding a method of protecting such a user's personal information, <CIT> (hereinafter, referred to as the "prior art") has proposed a customized service method of performing differentiated marketing based on a user's classification while preventing the user's personal information from leaking from a computer that an individual uses and manages to the outside. Document <CIT> discloses a method for anonymizing data such as personally identifiable information (PII) by a proxy server, involving forwarding a processed request including anonymized strings to a web server.

However, the prior art is just limited to software previously installed in a user's previously defined and prepared network connector, but not related to technology for protecting personal information contained in input information of many unspecified users.

Recently, various cloud-based services have become widespread. With such spread of the services, important personal identification information and the like personal information (e.g. phone numbers, detailed addresses, e-mail addresses, account information, a user's location information, visit histories, etc.) are transmitted to an overseas cloud service server, and thus concern about information leakage has grown in terms of storage/management.

Specifically, query content, which contains information voluntarily provided by general users to solve a problem or information provided in response to a request of a service providing business, i.e. a service provider, may include personal information that needs to be protected whether the users intend or not, and the personal information is delivered to and stored and managed in a cloud/public based system by the service provider, thereby causing a problem of leaking the personal information.

In particular, in the past, it was a way for users to query search services/community service providers/club site with generalized and abstracted content and wait for real-time or non-real-time responses to find a way to solve the problem(For example, please recommend a plastic surgery hospital near Seoul Station). However, in recent years, with the development of artificial intelligence technology, a method of utilizing an 'artificial intelligence/virtual machine facility system', which requests a solution to a problem based on one's specific situation and history, and expects an answer, has appeared(For example, "Please tell me the hospital that has good nose surgery around me" or "Please reserve the hospital. My phone number is <NUM>-<NUM>-<NUM>"). In this recent method, there is a disadvantage in that a user is identified only by the user's history of using the corresponding system or a legal/institutional dispute related to personal information management occurs.

Stable protection of all information in the step of inputting/processing information, transmitting/receiving network, and storing information is already performed for information entered by the user according to a given form, such as an existing membership subscription or application for product/service use, or Protection is achieved through various technologies/devices required for security processing, so there is no problem.

However, if you enter a free query/troubleshooting request, not a given form of a service provider, and deliver it to a device such as a natural language analysis/artificial intelligence system, important personal information of the user can be entered at any time. Therefore, there are many difficulties in safe information management/processing.

Accordingly, technology is needed to prevent users' own important information, identification information, sensitive information and the like personal information from being exposed to a cloud service system (or a public service system) even though the corresponding information is specified/stated whatever the users intend or not while using the service.

The disclosure is conceived to solve the problems of the related art as described above, and an aspect of the disclosure is to provide a system for providing a query processing service based on personal-information protection to prevent personal information, which needs to be protected, from being transmitted to/stored in/managed by a cloud service server regardless of a user's awareness, when a service provider processes the query content, which is given by the user to solve a problem, through a public service or a cloud service.

In addition, it is an object of the present invention to provide a system for providing a query processing service based on personal information protection that enables security of stricter personal information.

In addition, an object of the present invention is to provide a system for providing a query processing service based on personal information protection that enables additional protection of personal information that needs to be protected.

In addition, it is an object of the present invention to provide a system for providing a query processing service based on personal information protection that can improve the quality of a query processing service for a user.

In addition, an object of the present invention is to provide a system for providing a query processing service based on personal information protection that enables additional protection of personal information that needs to be protected in accordance with a user's intention.

In addition, an object of the present invention is to provide a system for providing a query processing service based on personal information protection that enables an answer to a query to be generated and provided without exposing personal information that needs to be protected even if an answer cannot be generated only with the transmitted processing query content.

To achieve the foregoing technical aspects as described above, the disclosure proposes a system for providing a query processing service based on personal-information protection, the system including: a client terminal configured to allow a user to input and send query content for solving a problem; a relaying and processing server configured to extract and process personal information contained in the query content received from the client terminal, transmit processed query content the comprising processed personal information to a cloud service server, and transmit an answer to a query received from the cloud service server to the client terminal; and the cloud service server configured to generate the answer to the query by analyzing the processed query content received from the relaying and processing server, and transmit the answer to the query to the relaying and processing server.

Here, the relaying and processing server may include: a personal-information extractor configured to extract common personal-information identification data having a common characteristic pattern and individual personal-information identification data having an individual characteristic pattern from the query content; and a relaying processor configured to process the common personal-information identification data and the individual personal-information identification data extracted by the personal-information extractor, and transmit the processed query content including the processed data.

Here, the common personal-information identification data and the individual personal-information identification data extracted by the personal-information extractor may be processed by encoding or substitution.

Further, the relaying and processing server may further include a post verifier configured to extract additional personal-information identification data having a modified characteristic pattern from the query content after transmitting the answer to the query to the client terminal.

Further, the system may further include an additional information providing server configured to provide additional information for reinforcing the answer to the query, based on a request of the relaying and processing server.

According to the disclosure, when a service provider processes query content, which is given by a user to solve a problem, through a public service or a cloud service, it is advantageously possible to prevent personal information, which needs to be protected, from being transmitted to/stored in/managed by a cloud service server regardless of a user's awareness.

In addition, the present invention has the advantage of enabling more strict protection of personal information.

In addition, the present invention has the advantage of allowing additional protection of personal information that needs to be protected afterwards.

In addition, the present invention has an advantage to improve the quality of the query processing service for the user.

In addition, the present invention has the advantage of enabling additional protection of personal information that needs to be protected in the future according to the user's intention.

In addition, the present invention has the advantage that it is possible to generate and provide an answer to a query without exposing personal information that needs to be protected even when an answer cannot be generated only with the transmitted processing query content.

Below, preferred embodiments of a system for providing the query processing service based on the personal-information protection according to an embodiment of the disclosure with the foregoing objects, solutions, and effects will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

In this process, the size or shape of components shown in the drawings may be exaggerated for clarity and convenience of description. In addition, terms specifically defined in consideration of the configuration and operation of the present invention may vary depending on the intention or custom of the user or operator.

<FIG> is a block diagram of a system for providing a query processing service based on personal-information protection according to an embodiment of the disclosure, and <FIG> is a detailed block diagram of the system.

As shown in <FIG> and <FIG>, a system <NUM> for providing a query processing service based on personal-information protection according to an embodiment of the disclosure includes a client terminal <NUM> used by a user to input query content; a relaying and processing server <NUM> configured to screen the query content and extract and process personal information, which needs to be protected, from the query content, and relay the query content including the processed personal information, i.e. the processed query content; and a cloud service server <NUM> configured to analyze the processed query content and deal with a query, i.e. generate and provide an answer to the query.

Further, as necessary, the system <NUM> for providing a query processing service based on personal-information protection according to an embodiment of the disclosure may additionally include a service inquiry and processing server <NUM> configured to store and manage data to be referenced in the relaying and processing server <NUM>; and an additional information providing server <NUM> configured to provide additional information requested by the relaying and processing server.

The client terminal <NUM> refers to a terminal that is used by a user in inputting and sending query content to solve a problem. Such a client terminal <NUM> may include any terminal connectable to a wired/wireless network. For example, if the client terminal <NUM> can be connected to a network such as a mobile phone, a smart phone, a desktop, or a laptop, all of them can be applied.

The query content refers to content that is sent to the relaying and processing server <NUM> by a user. The query content may include only one among a text, a voice and an image, or a combination of two or more of them.

Meanwhile, the query content is conceptualized to include not only content that is unilaterally input by a user using the client terminal <NUM> and transmitted to the relaying and processing server <NUM>, but also content that is input and transmitted as a response to a request of the relaying and processing server <NUM>. Therefore, the query content transmitted to the relaying and processing server <NUM> by the user to solve a problem may include one piece of query content, or may include a plurality of pieces of query content as responses to the requests of the relaying and processing server <NUM>.

The query content input through the client terminal <NUM> is transmitted to the relaying and processing server <NUM> and then relayed. In other words, the relaying and processing server <NUM> extracts and processes personal information from the query content received from the client terminal <NUM>, transmits processed query content including the processed personal information to the cloud service server <NUM>, and transmits a response to a query received from the cloud service server <NUM> to the client terminal <NUM>.

Specifically, the relaying and processing server <NUM> extracts and processes the personal information included in the query content transmitted from the client terminal <NUM>, and then processes the processed query content including the processed personal information into a cloud service server <NUM>. In addition, the relaying and processing server <NUM> performs an operation of transmitting a response to the query transmitted from the cloud service server <NUM> to the client terminal <NUM>.

First, the relaying and processing server <NUM> may include service providing servers respectively operated by service-providing business operators, i.e. service providers of providing specific services(e.g. financial, medical, travel, education, lodging, shopping, and the like services), or may include a service providing server operated by a service agency that provides integrated services on behalf of the service-providing business operators of providing such specific services.

The relaying and processing server <NUM> does not intactly relay the query content from the client terminal <NUM> to the cloud service server <NUM>, but screens whether the query content includes personal information that needs to be protected, extracts the personal information that needs to be protected, processes the extracted personal information by a specific method, and transmits the processed query content, into which the processed personal information and the rest of the query content with none of the personal information are merged, to the cloud service server <NUM>.

For example, when the query content includes a sentence of "a, b, c, c, e, f, g. " and it is identified that "a" corresponding to a word or data (string) is relevant to the personal information or includes the personal information, the relaying and processing server <NUM> processes the "a" into "*" and then transmits "*, b, c, c, e, f, g. " corresponding to the processed query content including the processed personal information of "*" to the cloud service server <NUM>.

Ultimately, the relaying and processing server <NUM> does not intactly transmit the query content including the personal information to the cloud service server <NUM>, but processes a part corresponding to personal information to be unrecognizable by people and then transmits the processed query content to the cloud service server <NUM>. Therefore, the personal information of the user is not transmitted to the cloud service server <NUM>, but is transmitted in an appropriately protected state, thereby achieving the effect of protecting personal information.

The cloud service server <NUM> generates a response to a query based on the processed query content and transmits the response to the relaying and processing server <NUM>. Then, the relaying and processing server <NUM> relays the answer to the query from the cloud service server <NUM> to the client terminal <NUM> which has the query to solve the problem.

As described above, the cloud service server <NUM> performs operations of analyzing the processed query content received from the relaying and processing server <NUM>, generating the answer to the query, and transmitting the response to the relaying and processing server <NUM>. The cloud service server <NUM> is a business-operator server for providing a cloud service, and makes up a public service system. According to the disclosure, the cloud service server <NUM> is equivalent to a cloud service server that is used by a service agency or service provider related to specific services operated by the relaying and processing server <NUM>. Specifically, the cloud service server <NUM> constitutes a cloud service system or public service system that responds to, replies to, and handles various queries, requests, and services.

When the cloud service server <NUM> receives the processed query content, the cloud service server <NUM> is unable to recognize the processed personal information contained in the received processed-query content and therefore operates in principle to process a query, i.e. generate the answer to the query by analyzing the rest of the query content with none of the processed personal information and transmit the response to the relaying and processing server <NUM>.

According to a system for providing a query processing service based on personal-information protection <NUM> according to the present invention having the above configuration means and operation, when a service provider processes query content, which is given by a user to solve a problem, through a public service or a cloud service, it is advantageously possible to prevent personal information, which needs to be protected, from being transmitted to/stored in/managed by a cloud service server regardless of a user's awareness.

Below, specific configurations, operations and interactions of the relaying and processing server <NUM>, the client terminal <NUM> and the cloud service server <NUM>, which constitute the system <NUM> for providing the query processing service based on personal-information protection, will be described in detail.

First, the relaying and processing server <NUM> includes a query-relaying receiver <NUM> to receive query content from the client terminal <NUM>. The query-relaying receiver <NUM> transmits the query content to the personal-information extractor <NUM> so as to analyze whether the query content includes the personal information.

The personal-information extractor <NUM> extracts the personal information contained in the query content and required to be protected. The personal information may be classified into two major kinds of information, for example, common personal-information identification data regarded as personal information applied in common to people, and individual personal-information identification data regarded as personal information related to specific services and applied case by case to individuals.

The common personal-information identification data refers to personal information used in common for users or people, for example, identification data such as e-mail addresses, phone numbers, social security numbers, etc. Such common personal-information identification data includes a characteristic pattern identifiable as personal information to be protected, i.e. a common characteristic pattern. For example, the common characteristic pattern refers to a pattern by which the common personal-information identification data is characterized, and includes patterns of ". net", etc. by which the e-mail addresses are characterized, patterns of "<NUM>", "<NUM>", etc. by which the phone numbers are characterized, patterns of "******-<NUM> ******" considering the number of digits by which the social security numbers are characterized, and so on.

On the other hand, the individual personal-information identification data refers to personal information individually used in connection with specific services, for example, personal information related to financial, lodging, travel, education, medical, shopping, and the like specific services. In more detail, the individual personal-information identification data refers to identification data such as a "credit rating: first class" related to the financial service, a "diagnosis: mental illnesses" related to the medical service, etc. Such individual personal-information identification data also includes a characteristic pattern identifiable as personal information to be protected, i.e. an individual characteristic pattern. For example, the individual characteristic pattern may correspond to "credit", "class", etc. as patterns by which the individual personal-information identification data, i.e. the "credit rating: first class" is characterized, and "diagnosis", "mental illnesses", etc. as patterns by which the "diagnosis: mental illnesses" is characterized.

Like this, the personal-information extraction <NUM> according to the present invention not only provides common personal-information identification data corresponding to personal information commonly applied to general people, but also individual personal-information identification data corresponding to personal information related to a specific services. It is extracted as personal information to be protected.

In other words, the personal-information extractor <NUM> according to the disclosure performs operation of extracting the common personal-information identification data having the common characteristic pattern and the individual personal-information identification data having the individual characteristic pattern from the query content. The personal-information extractor <NUM> is configured to stepwise extract the two kinds of personal information. To this end, the personal-information extractor <NUM> includes a common personal-information extractor 33a and an individual personal-information extractor 33b.

The common personal-information extractor 33a extracts the common personal-information identification data having the common characteristic pattern from the query content. Specifically, the common personal-information extractor 33a screens the query content, detects whether there is a common characteristic pattern, and extracts data (strings) including the common characteristic pattern as the common personal-information identification data when the common characteristic pattern is detected. At least one common characteristic pattern is previously stored and managed in a relay storage <NUM>, and continuously updated. Therefore, the common personal-information extractor 33a detects the common characteristic pattern through the operation of screening whether the query content includes the common characteristic pattern(s) stored and managed in the relay storage <NUM>, and extracts the common personal-information identification data including the common characteristic pattern from the query content.

On the other hand, the individual personal-information extractor 33b extracts the individual personal-information identification data having the individual characteristic pattern from the query content. Specifically, the individual personal-information extractor 33b screens the query content, detects whether there is an individual characteristic pattern, and extracts data (strings) including the individual characteristic pattern as the individual personal-information identification data when the individual characteristic pattern is detected. At least one individual characteristic pattern is previously stored and managed in the relay storage <NUM>, and continuously updated. Therefore, the individual personal-information extractor 33b detects the individual characteristic pattern through the operation of screening whether the query content includes the individual characteristic pattern(s) stored and managed in the relay storage <NUM>, and extracts the individual personal-information identification data including the individual characteristic pattern from the query content.

The common and individual personal-information identification data extracted by the personal-information extractor <NUM> is processed by a relaying processor <NUM>, and then transmitted to the cloud service server <NUM> as contained in the transmitted query content. Thus, the relaying processor <NUM> processes the extracted common personal-information identification data and the extracted individual personal-information identification data by a predetermined method, and then transmits the processed query content, obtained by applying the processed personal-information identification data to the query content, to the cloud service server <NUM>.

In brief, the relaying processor <NUM> processes the common personal-information identification data and the individual personal-information identification data extracted by the personal-information extractor <NUM>, and then transmits the processed query content including the processed data to the cloud service server <NUM>. In more detail, the relaying processor <NUM> receives the query content received in the query-relaying receiver <NUM>, generates the processed query content obtained by processing the common personal-information identification data and the individual personal-information identification data, which are extracted from the personal-information extractor <NUM> contained in the received query content, through a predetermined method, and transmits the processed query content to the cloud service server <NUM>.

Here, the process performed in the relaying processor <NUM> refers to a process that the common personal-information identification data and the individual personal-information identification data contained in the query content are handled not to be recognizable by people. Specifically, the common personal-information identification data and the individual personal-information identification data extracted in the personal-information extractor <NUM> are processed by the relaying processor <NUM> to be encoded or substituted. In other words, the relaying processor <NUM> encodes, replaces or substitutes the common personal-information identification data and the individual personal-information identification data with a specific character (string) or masking not to be recognizable.

When the relaying processor <NUM> transmits the processed query content to the cloud service server <NUM>, the cloud service server <NUM> processes a query, i.e. generates an answer to the query, based on the processed query content, thereby transmitting the response to the relaying processor <NUM> of the relaying and processing server <NUM>.

To this end, the cloud service server <NUM> includes a query processor <NUM>, a cloud processor <NUM>, and a cloud storage <NUM>.

The cloud processor <NUM> receives the processed query content from the relaying processor <NUM>, transmits the processed query content to the query processor <NUM>, thereby processing the query, i.e. generating the answer to the query. Further, the cloud processor <NUM> processes the processed query content to be stored in the cloud storage <NUM>. In this case, the cloud processor <NUM> processes the processed query content to be stored in the cloud storage <NUM> as classified matching message identification (ID).

The query processor <NUM> receives the processed query content from the cloud processor <NUM>, analyzes the processed query content to process the query, i.e. generate the answer to the query, and transmits the response to the cloud processor <NUM>. Then, the cloud processor <NUM> stores the answer to the query in the cloud storage <NUM> as matched with the message ID, and at the same time transmits the answer to the query together with the message ID to the relaying processor <NUM>.

Like this, when a message corresponding to the answer to the query is transmitted to the relaying and processing server <NUM>, specifically, to the relaying processor <NUM>, the cloud processor <NUM> transmits and receives the message ID matching the answer to the query along with the message. Of course, the cloud processor <NUM> processes the answer to the query and its associated processed query content to be stored and managed matching the message ID in the cloud storage <NUM>.

When the relaying processor <NUM> receives both the answer to the query and the message ID from the cloud processor <NUM>, the relaying processor <NUM> processes the processed query content associated with the answer to the query to be stored and managed in the relay storage <NUM> as matched with the message ID. In this case, the relaying processor <NUM> may also process the answer to the query to be stored and managed together with the processed query content as matched with the message ID.

Specifically, the relaying processor <NUM> processes the processed query content to be transmitted to the cloud service server <NUM> and at the same time stored in the relay storage <NUM>, and stores and manages the message ID matching the processed query content stored in the relay storage <NUM> when both the answer to the query and the message ID are received from the cloud processor <NUM> as a process result of the processed query content.

Ultimately, the relaying processor <NUM> processes the processed query content to be stored and managed matching the message ID received from the cloud processor <NUM> so that all pieces of the processed query content to be transmitted to the cloud service server <NUM> can be classified. Therefore, when specific processed query content needs to be deleted or additionally processed in the future based on post verification, the relaying processor <NUM> may use the message ID to make a request for deleting the specific processed query content or additionally processing the personal-information identification data contained in the specific processed query content to the cloud processor <NUM>. In this regard, descriptions will be made later.

As described above, the relay storage <NUM> is configured to store and manage the common characteristic pattern and the individual characteristic pattern, and store and manage the processed query content as matched with the message ID. Like this, the relay storage <NUM> is configured to store and manage the processed query content processed by the relaying processor <NUM> as matched with the message ID.

When the processed personal information contained in the processed query content is encoded and then stored in the relay storage <NUM>, the personal information may be decoded and restored in a case where restoration is needed later. In other words, when a user makes a request for inquiring about the processed query content stored and managed in the relay storage <NUM>, the processed personal information subjected to encoding is restored by decoding and then transmitted to the client terminal <NUM> that the user uses.

On the other hand, when the processed personal information contained in the processed query content is processed by substitution or masking and then stored in the relay storage <NUM>, a problem may rise because the processed personal information is not a decoding target in a case where restoration is needed later. Therefore, when the processed personal information is processed by methods other than encoding, e.g. processed by masking or substitution, the relaying processor <NUM> stores the processed query content in the relay storage <NUM> along with the original of the processed personal information (or raw information, i.e. the personal information before being processed). In result, when a user makes a request for inquiring about the processed query content stored and managed in the relay storage <NUM>, the processed personal information processed by methods other than encoding, e.g. processed by masking or substitution may be restored based on the original stored and managed together, and then transmitted to the client terminal <NUM> that the user uses.

As described above, the relaying processor <NUM> receives the answer to the query along with the message ID from the cloud processor <NUM>, and stores and manages the message ID as matched with the processed query content related to the answer to the query. Further, the relaying processor <NUM> transmits the answer to the query to the client terminal <NUM> that the user uses to input and send the query content for solving the problem. Then, the user can solve the problem needed to be solved.

With such a process, information input by a user to solve a problem, i.e. query content is transmitted to the cloud service server <NUM> through the relaying process of the relaying and processing server <NUM>, and the processed query, i.e. the answer to the query is transmitted from the cloud service server <NUM> to the client terminal <NUM> via the relaying and processing server <NUM>, thereby finally completing the provision of the query processing service.

When the provision of the query processing service is completed by such a process, the post verification may be performed to enhance the personal information protection. To this end, the relaying and processing server <NUM> according to the disclosure further includes a post verifier <NUM> to extract additional personal-information identification data having a modified characteristic pattern from the query content after the answer to the query is transmitted to the client terminal <NUM>.

There may be personal information, which is not extracted, while the personal information is first extracted from the query content, i.e. while the personal-information extractor <NUM> extracts the personal information. In other words, the additional personal-information identification data, which is not extracted by the personal-information extractor <NUM>, may be still remained in the processed query content.

Therefore, when the answer to the query is completely transmitted to the client terminal <NUM>, the relaying processor <NUM> controls the post verifier <NUM> to extract the additional personal-information identification data from the processed query content stored in the relay storage <NUM> as matched with the message ID.

In other words, when the relaying processor <NUM> instructs the post verifier <NUM> to perform the post verification of the processed query content, the post verifier <NUM> screens the processed query content stored in the relay storage <NUM>, identifies whether there is a modified characteristic pattern, and extracts the additional personal-information identification data having the modified characteristic pattern when it is identified that there is the modified characteristic pattern.

The modified characteristic pattern includes not only patterns modified from the common characteristic pattern and the individual characteristic pattern, but also a pattern of characterizing personal information which is not extracted as the common characteristic pattern and the individual characteristic pattern. For example, the modified characteristic pattern may correspond to not ". com (dot com)" but ". com (dot com with a blank space)" related to the e-mail, and correspond to a pattern in which spelling or orthography is not correct as compared with those of the common and individual characteristic patterns.

The modified characteristic pattern is also stored and managed in the relay storage <NUM>, and continuously updated. If it is taken into account that problems in spelling, orthography, word spacing, etc. are frequently involved in query content input by a user, there is a need of considerably increasing the number of cases for the modified characteristic pattern, and there is a need of a continuous update to continuously add various patterns.

When the modified characteristic pattern is detected, the post verifier <NUM> extracts the additional personal-information identification data based on data (strings) including the modified characteristic pattern, and transmits the additional personal-information identification data to the relaying processor <NUM>. Then, the relaying processor <NUM> processes the additional personal-information identification data, and stores reprocessed query content including the processed additional personal-information identification data again in the relay storage <NUM>. Of course, the message ID of the reprocessed query content is the message ID matching the processed query content.

Meanwhile, the relaying processor <NUM> requests change of the message, i.e. the processed query content while transmitting the reprocessed query content to the cloud processor <NUM> along with the message ID matching the processed query content (i.e. the reprocessed query content). Then, the cloud processor <NUM> retrieves the message corresponding to the message ID, i.e. the processed query content, among the messages stored and managed in the cloud storage <NUM> with reference to the message ID, and replaces the retrieved message with the reprocessed query content.

In result, the relaying and processing server <NUM> autonomously performs the post verification to enhance the personal-information protection, thereby having an effect on further guaranteeing the personal-information protection.

Meanwhile, the post verification may be carried out by a user's intention. To this end, the client terminal <NUM> includes a client processor <NUM> as well as a query input receiver <NUM> to which a query is input and a client storage <NUM> in which query content and messages received from the relaying and processing server <NUM> are stored and managed.

The query input receiver <NUM> allows a user to input query content. Then, the client processor <NUM> transmits the query content to the relaying and processing server <NUM>, specifically, to the query-relaying receiver <NUM>, and at the same time stores the query content in the client storage <NUM>.

Then, the client processor <NUM> copes with request of the relaying processor <NUM> in the relaying and processing server <NUM>. For example, when the relaying processor <NUM> requests an additional query to process the query, the client processor <NUM> serves to inform a user of the request and then transmit the additional query input through the query input receiver <NUM> to the relaying processor <NUM>.

Meanwhile, the client processor <NUM> may make a request for inquiring about pieces of query contents under a user's control after receiving an answer to the query from the relaying and processing server <NUM>, specifically, from the relaying processor <NUM>. When the relaying processor <NUM> permits the inquiry in response to the request, the user can look up the pieces of query content. The user may make an inquiry about the processed query content by directly accessing the relay storage <NUM>, or may make an inquiry about the query content restored under control of the relaying processor <NUM>.

When it is found on inquiry that a piece of processed query content is desired to be removed or a part of the processed query content is required to be processed, the piece of processed query content desired to be removed or a processing required part of the processed query content are sent to the relaying processor <NUM> through the client processor <NUM>. Then, the relaying processor <NUM> transmits the message ID matching the processed query content required by the user to be removed to the cloud processor <NUM> so as to remove the processed query content stored in the cloud storage <NUM>, or processes the processing required part requested by the user and stores the reprocessed query content including this processed part again in the relay storage <NUM>. Of course, the message ID of the reprocessed query content is the message ID matching the processed query content.

Meanwhile, the relaying processor <NUM> makes a request for changing the message, i.e. the processed query content while transmitting the reprocessed query content to the cloud processor <NUM> along with the message ID matching the processed query content (i.e. the reprocessed query content). Then, the cloud processor <NUM> retrieves the message corresponding to the message ID, i.e. the processed query content, among pieces of messages stored and managed in the cloud storage <NUM> with reference to the message ID, and performs the change by replacing the found message with the reprocessed query content.

In result, the user performs the post verification in person to enhance the personal-information protection, thereby having an effect on further guaranteeing the personal-information protection.

As such, after a response to the query is provided to the user, the user directly queries the query to perform post verification, and through the post verification, the user can request deletion or processing of specific query content or specific data. Then, the relaying processor may request the cloud service server to delete or process the corresponding query content or specific data. As a result, the present invention has the advantage of enabling additional protection of personal information that needs to be protected in the future according to the user's intention.

Meanwhile, the cloud service server <NUM> according to the disclosure generates a response to a query based on an unprocessed part of the processed query content, i.e. based on information other than the processed personal information. However, when it is identified that the received processed-query content is not enough to process a query and generate an answer to the query, the cloud service server <NUM>, specifically, the query processor <NUM> transmits a query, which does not directly request personal information, i.e. a bypassing query for recognizing specific personal information to the relaying processor <NUM> through the cloud processor <NUM>. Then, the relaying processor <NUM> receives an answer to the bypassing query from the client terminal <NUM> that the user uses, and provides the answer to the query processor <NUM> through the cloud processor <NUM>. Then, the query processor <NUM> finally generates an answer to the query based on the answer to the bypassing query, and provides the answer to the client terminal <NUM> through the relaying and processing server <NUM>.

The bypassing query for recognizing the personal information is not a query asking for an answer through which the personal information is directly exposed, but a query making it possible to recognize the personal information without exposing the personal information. For example, when the query processor <NUM> needs to know a credit rating of a user in order to answer a query, the processed query content is not enough to generate the answer to the query because personal information about such a credit rating in the processed query content has already been processed (e.g. subjected to encoding, substitution or masking).

In this case, the query processor may send the bypassing query for recognizing the personal information, by which choose No. <NUM> is chosen for the first class, No. <NUM> is chosen for a class between the second and third classes, and No. <NUM> is chosen for a class lower than the third class, to the relaying and processing server, and receive an answer to the bypassing query through the client terminal. In this case, the answer to the sent bypassing query is one among No. <NUM>, No. <NUM> and No. <NUM>, and therefore the personal information is not transmitted to, stored in and managed by the cloud service server.

Thus, according to the disclosure, even when the sent processed query content is not enough to generate the answer, it is possible to finally generate and provide the answer to the query without exposing the personal information required to be protected, thereby having effects on achieving both the guarantee of the personal-information protection and the improvement in the quality of the query processing service.

Meanwhile, the relaying and processing server <NUM>, specifically, the relaying processor <NUM> receives the answer to the query from the cloud service server <NUM>, specifically, from the cloud processor <NUM>, and directly transmits the received answer to the query to the client terminal <NUM>. However, as necessary, additional information useful for the client terminal <NUM>, specifically, for a user may be added to the received answer and transmitted to the client terminal <NUM>.

To this end, the system <NUM> for providing the query processing service based on personal-information protection according to the disclosure may further include the additional information providing server <NUM> configured to provide additional information requested by the relaying processor <NUM>. In other words, the system <NUM> for providing a query processing service based on personal-information protection according to an embodiment of the disclosure may further include the additional information providing server <NUM> configured to provide additional information for reinforcing the answer to the query, as requested by the relaying and processing server <NUM>.

The additional information providing server <NUM> may include a server for providing additional information about one of weather information, traffic information, medical information, etc. or a server for providing at least two pieces of information together.

When the relaying processor <NUM> identifies that there is a need of adding additional information after receiving the answer to the query, the relaying processor <NUM> makes a request for the additional information to the additional information providing server <NUM>, receives the corresponding additional information, the answer to the query, and transmits the additional information to the client terminal <NUM>. The identification of whether there is a need of adding the additional information is based on a preset policy. For example, based on a preset policy that weather information is added and transmitted as the additional information when the answer to the query is information about a travel destination, the relaying processor <NUM> makes a request for the weather information about the corresponding travel destination to the additional information providing server <NUM> and receives the weather information, thereby transmitting the answer to the query to the client terminal <NUM> along with the additional information of the weather information.

Meanwhile, the relaying and processing server <NUM> according to the disclosure needs information related to services or customers and needs to provide the information. To this end, the system <NUM> for providing the query processing service based on personal-information protection according to the disclosure further includes the service inquiry and processing server <NUM> so that the relaying and processing server <NUM> can be provided with information for processing the services and information needed for processing the query and customer information.

Although a method of providing a query processing service based on personal-information protection has been described with the foregoing operations of the system <NUM> for providing the query processing service based on personal-information protection, the method will be schematically summarized as follows.

As shown in <FIG>, the method of providing a query processing service based on personal-information protection using the system <NUM> for providing a query processing service based on personal-information protection according to an embodiment of the disclosure first starts when a user inputs query content for solving a problem (S10).

Then, the relaying and processing server extracts the common personal-information identification data having the common characteristic pattern and the individual personal-information identification data having the individual characteristic pattern from the query content (S20). Thereafter, the extracted common and individual personal-information identification data is processed (e.g. subjected to encoding, substitution or masking), and the processed query content is transmitted to the cloud service server (S30). With this process, the query content input by the user is not intactly transmitted to the cloud service server, but transmitted as the personal information that needs to be protected is processed not to be recognizable in the cloud.

The cloud service server generates an answer to a query based on the processed query content. Preferentially, it is identified whether the answer to the query can be generated by only the received processed-query content (S40). As a result of the identification, when the received processed-query content is enough to process the query, i.e. generate the answer to the query, the generated answer to the query is provided together with the message ID to the relaying and processing server (S50). On the other hand, when the received processed-query content is not enough to generate the answer to the query, the answer to the query is generated using the bypassing query for recognizing specific personal information (S45). Then, the answer to the query generated using the bypassing query is provided together with the message ID (S50).

The relaying and processing server receives the message ID and the answer to the query, and identifies whether additional information needs to be added in addition to the answer to the query, based on a preset policy (S60). As a result of the identification, when the additional information is not needed, the answer to the query is directly transmitted to the client terminal (S70). On the other hand, when the additional information is needed, the additional information is obtained by making an additional query to the additional information providing server (S65). Next, both the answer to the query and the obtained additional information are transmitted to the client terminal.

When the client terminal receives the answer to the query through the foregoing processes, the post verification may be additionally performed by a user's intention or the relaying and processing server as described above (S75).

Although a few embodiments of the disclosure have been described, these are for illustrative purpose only and it will be appreciated by a person having an ordinary skill in the art that various changes and equivalents can be made from these embodiments. Therefore, the true technical protection scope of the disclosure should be defined in the appended claims.

Claim 1:
A system (<NUM>) for providing a query processing service based on personal-information protection, the system (<NUM>) comprising:
a client terminal (<NUM>) configured to allow a user to input and send query content for solving a problem;
a relaying and processing server (<NUM>) configured to extract and process personal information contained in the query content received from the client terminal (<NUM>), transmit processed query content comprising the processed personal information to a cloud service server (<NUM>), and transmit an answer to a query received from the cloud service server (<NUM>) to the client terminal (<NUM>); and
the cloud service server (<NUM>) configured to generate the answer to the query by analyzing the processed query content received from the relaying and processing server (<NUM>), and transmit the answer to the query to the relaying and processing server (<NUM>),
wherein the relaying and processing server (<NUM>) comprises:
a personal-information extractor (<NUM>) configured to extract common personal-information identification data having a common characteristic pattern and individual personal-information identification data having an individual characteristic pattern from the query content; and
a relaying processor (<NUM>) configured to process the common personal-information identification data and the individual personal-information identification data extracted by the personal-information extractor (<NUM>), and transmit the processed query content comprising the processed data,
wherein the relaying and processing server (<NUM>) further comprises a post verifier (<NUM>) configured to extract additional personal-information identification data having a modified characteristic pattern from the query content after transmitting the answer to the query to the client terminal (<NUM>),
wherein the modified characteristic pattern is a pattern in which spelling, orthography, or word spacing is not correct as compared to those of the common and individual characteristic patterns, and
wherein the modified characteristic pattern is stored and managed in a relay storage (<NUM>), and continuously updated.