Computer ecosystem providing privacy and tracking in sharing user-generated content by encrypting the UGC at the imaging source

摘要

Methods and apparatus are disclosed for securely sharing user-generated content using DRM principles, and for tracking statistics of content viewing. In this way, a user can generate protected content that can still be shared among friends on, e.g., a social network.

主权项

1. An imaging device comprising:
at least one imager of a camera, the imager configured for producing image signals, the imager being disposed on a processing chip; at least one computer memory comprising instructions executable by a processor; and at least one processor on the processing chip and configured for accessing the computer memory to execute the instructions for: communicating with a processor of a consumer electronics (CE) device of a user associated with content generated by the imager, the CE device having sent to a remote digital rights management (DRM) service a network identification of the camera; receiving from the remote DRM service encryption information addressed to the network identification, the encryption information not being sent to the processor of the CE device, wherein the encryption information includes at least one encryption application for execution thereof by the processor on the processing chip; accessing a digital rights management (DRM) engine on the processing chip; using the encryption information, encrypting at least some of the image signals according to the DRM engine to render encrypted user-generated content (UGC) prior to transmitting the at least some of the image signals off of the processing chip; and providing the encrypted UGC to the remote DRM service according to commands from the CE device.