US 11,914,733 B2
Timing for user data erasure requests
Paul R. Bastide, Ashland, MA (US); Shakil Manzoor Khan, Highland Mills, NY (US); and Senthil Bakthavachalam, Yorktown Heights, NY (US)
Assigned to INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION, Armonk, NY (US)
Filed by INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION, Armonk, NY (US)
Filed on Jan. 21, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/154,016.
Prior Publication US 2022/0229921 A1, Jul. 21, 2022
Int. Cl. G06F 21/31 (2013.01); G06F 21/62 (2013.01); G06F 21/60 (2013.01); G06F 18/22 (2023.01)
CPC G06F 21/6218 (2013.01) [G06F 18/22 (2023.01); G06F 21/31 (2013.01); G06F 21/604 (2013.01); G06F 2221/2143 (2013.01)] 8 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A computer-implemented method of processing user data erasure requests, the method comprising:
receiving, by a hardware processor, a data erasure request associated with a user, wherein the data erasure request is a request to delete all records associated with the user from a data reservoir;
identifying, by the hardware processor based at least in part on the data erasure request, an entity associated with the user and one or more identifiers for the user;
identifying, by the hardware processor based at least in part on the one or more identifiers for the user, a cohort that includes the user;
comparing, by the hardware processor, the one or more identifiers for the user to identifiers of a plurality of users that are not members of the cohort, wherein comparing the one or more identifiers for the user to identifiers of the plurality of users that are not members of the cohort includes calculating a similarity score between the user and each of the plurality of users that are not members of the cohort;
identifying, by the hardware processor, a replacement user from the plurality of users based on the comparison, wherein the replacement user is identified as having the highest similarity score of the calculated similarity scores;
replacing, by the hardware processor, the entity associated with the user in the cohort with an entity associated with the replacement user, wherein replacing the entity associated with the user in the cohort includes completing the data erasure request by deleting the entity associated with the user and all records associated with the user from the data reservoir; and
delaying the replacement of the entity associated with the user in the cohort with the entity associated with the replacement user based on a determination that the similarity score of the replacement user is less than a threshold level, wherein the delay lasts until the similarity score of the replacement user exceeds the threshold level up to a maximum time period from receipt of the data erasure request,
wherein similarity scores for newly added users that are not members of the cohort are calculated during the maximum time period.