Patent attributes
A system and methodology that facilitates management and utilization of variable subscriber identifiers (V-SubIds) for protecting subscriber privacy is disclosed herein. In one aspect, an Anonymous Customer Reference (ACR) component receives a V-SubId, which is a short-lived subscriber identifier that is to be inserted in a communication messages transmitted from a user equipment instead of a unique device identifier (UDID) of the user equipment. On expiration of the V-SubId, a new V-SubId is received and utilized in subsequent communication messages transmitted from the user equipment. Further, trusted systems/applications can exchange the V-SubId for a subscriber identifier (SubId) associated with the user equipment. Furthermore, untrusted systems/applications can exchange, based on user authorization, the V-SubId for an application-specific ACR that remains static and/or valid for a predefined time period. Moreover, the application-specific ACR is utilized as a device identifier for the user equipment in subsequent communication messages for the predefined time period.
