Privacy-preserving collaborative filtering

US8478768B1 · kind B1 · utility

Assignee

• Palo Alto Research Center Incorporated · US

Inventors

• Manas Pathak · Sunnyvale, US
• Richard Chow · Sunnyvale, US
• Runting Shi · San Jose, US
• Cong Wang · Beijing, CN

Key dates

• Filing date: Dec 8, 2011
• Grant date: Jul 2, 2013
• Expiry date: Dec 8, 2031

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G06Q30/0282
• WIPO field: IT methods for management
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

A recommender system can generate a predicted item rating for one user by performing collaborative filtering on item ratings from other users. The recommender system can include a client device that interfaces with a server to obtain a predicted item rating for a local user. The client device can generate a standardized ratings vector for the user, and computes a group identifier for the user based on the standardized ratings vector. The system also generates a noisy ratings vector for the local user, and sends a user-ratings snapshot to a recommendation server that includes the group identifier and the noisy ratings vector. The recommender system can also include the recommendation server that generates a predicted item rating for the user by performing collaborative filtering on ratings vectors from a plurality of other users that belong to the same ratings group.