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Google · Security · Filed May 6, 2025 · USPTO published Jun 25, 2026 · Jun 25 release

New Patent Keeps Your Account ID Hidden From Apps

Every time an app asks Google who you are, your real account identity gets passed around. Google's new patent describes a system that hands apps a throwaway stand-in code instead, keeping your actual account hidden behind Google's servers.

By · Updated · 3 min read

Google Patent: Opaque Tokens for User Account Privacy, figure from US 2026/0180800 A1
Figure from the official USPTO publication.
Publication number
US 2026/0180800 A1(US20260180800A1)
Applicant
Google LLC
Filed · Published
May 6, 2025 · Jun 25, 2026
Inventors
Daniel Robert White, Vlad-Adrian Radu, David Chaloupka, Evgeny Antaev, Darie Radu Mihail Patulescu, John William Ayres, Oleh Kuznetsov
Status when we published
Waiting for an examiner
Document
20 claims
US classification
713/172
Examiner
WINDER, PATRICE L (Art Unit 2453)
Parent application
National Stage Entry of PCT/US2023/035127 (filed Oct 13, 2023)(PCTUS2023035127)

What Google's opaque token system actually does for you

Imagine handing a coat-check your jacket and getting a numbered ticket in return. The ticket is useful, but it doesn't tell anyone your name, your address, or anything about you. That's the core idea here.

Right now, when an app on your phone needs to verify who you are through Google, it often receives information tied directly to your account. Google's patent describes a different approach: the app gets a user token, a random stand-in code that means nothing on its own. Only Google's servers hold the key that connects that code to your real account.

The result is that the app can do what it needs to do (confirm you're logged in, remember your preferences, and so on) without ever learning which Google account you actually are. If the app is later compromised or shares data it shouldn't, your real account identifier stays protected.

How Google generates and maps tokens without exposing accounts

The system works as a three-way handshake. An app on a device sends Google a token generation request along with an authentication token (a standard proof that you've already logged in) and a context identifier (a label describing which app or session is asking).

Google's servers take that authentication token, look up which account it belongs to, and then generate a fresh user token, essentially a random, meaningless string. Critically, the servers store a private mapping table that links the new token back to the real account. The app never sees that table.

  • The app receives only the opaque token.
  • Google holds the token-to-account mapping internally.
  • The context identifier lets Google issue different tokens for different apps, so the same user looks like a different entity to each one.

The word opaque in the patent title is deliberate: the token reveals nothing about its contents to anyone who intercepts or receives it. Only Google's backend can decode it.

What this means for app privacy and account tracking

This kind of token design is already common in payment systems (think the card numbers Apple Pay substitutes for your real credit card number), but applying it systematically to account identity across apps is a meaningful privacy layer. If an app leaks its token database or sells it to a data broker, the tokens are useless without Google's private mapping table.

For you as a user, the practical benefit is reduced cross-app tracking. Because each app can receive a different token for the same account, it becomes much harder for apps to compare notes and build a profile of your activity across services. That's the real teeth of this design, and it fits neatly alongside Google's broader stated push to reduce third-party access to persistent identifiers.

Source: US 2026/0180800 A1 at the USPTO (PDF). Full patent text and figures are in the official publication.

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