Methods and systems for managing data and/or services for devices

• US 10,216,957 B2
• Filed: 02/28/2013
• Issued: 02/26/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 11/26/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Elwha LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Elwha LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Jung, Edward K. Y., Levien, Royce A., Lord, Richard T., Lord, Robert W., Malamud, Mark A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Naghdali, Khalil
• Application Number:
  US13/781,194
• Publication Number:
  US 20140123324A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,189 Days
• Field of Search: 726 27
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6254 by anonymising data, e.g. decorrelating personal data from the owner's identification
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/108 when the policy decisions are valid for a limited amount of time
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/02 Protecting privacy or anonymity, e.g. protecting personally identifiable information [PII]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/08 Access security

Abstract

Computationally implemented methods and systems include acquiring data regarding an application configured to access one or more protected portions of a particular device, said application configured to provide one or more services, detecting that the application has completed at least one of the one or more services and that the application maintains access to the one or more protected portions of the particular device, presenting information indicating that the one or more services are completed and that the application maintains access to the one or more protected portions of the particular device, and circuitry for facilitating presentation of an option to discontinue the access of the application to the one or more protected portions of the particular device. In addition to the foregoing, other aspects are described in the claims, drawings, and text.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

circuitry configured for implementing one or more protected portions of a user device, the one or more protected portions including at least some protected data not transmitted from the user device without a user grant of access by an application to the one or more protected portions;

circuitry configured for facilitating presentation of an offer to provide at least one service accessible through at least one application on the user device in exchange for at least one user permission for the at least one application to transmit the at least some protected data from the user device while the at least one service is being carried out, including at least;

circuitry configured for facilitating the presentation of the offer to provide at least one fitness tracker service accessible through at least one application available for installation on the user device in exchange for at least one user permission for the at least one application to transmit, from the user device and to at least one computing device associated with the at least one fitness tracker service, health-related data personal to the user of the user device while the at least one fitness tracker service is being carried out, wherein the health-related data personal to the user is restricted from being transmitted by the user device without the at least one user permission;

circuitry configured for enabling the at least one application on the user device to have access to the one or more protected portions of the user device in response to receiving the at least one user permission for the at least one application to transmit the at least some protected data from the user device while the at least one service is being carried out;

circuitry configured for detecting that the at least one application has finished carrying out the at least one service and that the at least one application maintains the access to the one or more protected portions of the user device;

circuitry configured for facilitating presentation of an option to discontinue the access of the at least one application to the one or more protected portions of the user device; and

circuitry configured for discontinuing the access of the at least one application to the one or more protected portions of the user device in response to receiving an indication of a selection of the option to discontinue the access of the at least one application to the one or more protected portions of the user device.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein circuitry configured for enabling the at least one application on the user device to have access to the one or more protected portions of the user device in response to receiving the at least one user permission for the at least one application to transmit the at least some protected data from the user device while the at least one service is being carried out comprises:

circuitry configured for facilitating installation of the at least one application on the user device, the at least one application configured to transmit the at least some protected data from the user device to at least one other computing device associated with the at least one service while the at least one service is being carried out, in response to receiving the at least one user permission for the at least one application to transmit the at least some protected data from the user device while the at least one service is being carried out.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein circuitry configured for facilitating presentation of an offer to provide at least one service accessible through at least one application on the user device in exchange for at least one user permission for the at least one application to transmit the at least some protected data from the user device while the at least one service is being carried out comprises:

circuitry configured for scanning the user device to determine presence and accessibility of health-related data personal to a user of the user device.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein circuitry configured for detecting that the at least one application has finished carrying out the at least one service and that the at least one application maintains the access to the one or more protected portions of the user device comprises:

circuitry configured for detecting that the at least one application has terminated after carrying out at least a portion of the at least one service and that the at least one application maintains the access to the one or more protected portions of the user device after termination.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein circuitry configured for detecting that the at least one application has finished carrying out the at least one service and that the at least one application maintains the access to the one or more protected portions of the user device comprises:

circuitry configured for detecting that the at least one application has finished carrying out the at least one service and that the at least one application maintains the access to the one or more protected portions of the user device at least partially based on at least one content of one or more usage logs of the user device.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein circuitry configured for detecting that the at least one application has finished carrying out the at least one service and that the at least one application maintains the access to the one or more protected portions of the user device comprises:

circuitry configured for detecting that the at least one application has finished carrying out the at least one service and that the at least one application maintains the access to the one or more protected portions of the user device by examining at least one portion of a memory of the user device.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein circuitry configured for detecting that the at least one application has finished carrying out the at least one service and that the at least one application maintains the access to the one or more protected portions of the user device comprises:

circuitry configured for detecting that the at least one application has finished carrying out the at least one service and that the at least one application maintains the access to the one or more protected portions of the user device by receiving a report from at least one of a memory monitoring application or a kernel-based monitoring agent of a device operating system installed on the user device.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein circuitry configured for detecting that the at least one application has finished carrying out the at least one service and that the at least one application maintains the access to the one or more protected portions of the user device comprises:

circuitry configured for detecting that the at least one application has finished carrying out the at least one service and that the at least one application maintains the access to the one or more protected portions of the user device by monitoring data flow at least one of to or from one or more protected hardware components of the user device.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein circuitry configured for detecting that the at least one application has finished carrying out the at least one service and that the at least one application maintains the access to the one or more protected portions of the user device comprises:

circuitry configured for detecting that the at least one application has terminated and that the at least one application maintains the access to the one or more protected portions of the user device by receiving a report from a protected portion monitoring application.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein circuitry configured for detecting that the at least one application has finished carrying out the at least one service and that the at least one application maintains the access to the one or more protected portions of the user device comprises:

circuitry configured for receiving at least one notification that the at least one application has finished carrying out the at least one service; and

circuitry configured for receiving at least one notification that the at least one application maintains the access to the one or more protected portions of the user device.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein circuitry configured for detecting that the at least one application has finished carrying out the at least one service and that the at least one application maintains the access to the one or more protected portions of the user device comprises:

circuitry configured for receiving at least one notification that the at least one application has finished carrying out the at least one service; and

circuitry configured for detecting that the at least one application maintains the access to the one or more protected portions of the user device.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein circuitry configured for detecting that the at least one application maintains the access to the one or more protected portions of the user device comprises:

circuitry configured for monitoring one or more accesses of the one or more protected portions of the user device to determine that the at least one application maintains the access to the one or more protected portions of the user device.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein circuitry configured for detecting that the at least one application maintains the access to the one or more protected portions of the user device comprises:

circuitry configured for analyzing one or more features of the at least one application to determine that the at least one application maintains the access to the one or more protected portions of the user device.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein circuitry configured for detecting that the at least one application has finished carrying out the at least one service and that the at least one application maintains the access to the one or more protected portions of the user device comprises:

circuitry configured for detecting that the at least one application accesses the one or more protected portions of the user device after completing at least a portion of the at least one service.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein circuitry configured for detecting that the at least one application has finished carrying out the at least one service and that the at least one application maintains the access to the one or more protected portions of the user device comprises:

circuitry configured for receiving at least one notification, from the at least one application, that the at least one application has finished carrying out the at least one service, and receiving at least one notification that the at least one application maintains access to the one or more protected portions of the user device.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein circuitry configured for receiving at least one notification, from the at least one application, that the at least one application has finished carrying out the at least one service, and receiving at least one notification that the at least one application maintains access to the one or more protected portions of the user device comprises:

circuitry configured for receiving at least one notification, from the at least one application, that the at least one application has finished carrying out the at least one service, and receiving at least one notification, from the one or more protected portions of the user device, that the at least one application maintains the access to the one or more protected portions of the user device.

17. The system of claim 1, wherein circuitry configured for facilitating presentation of an option to discontinue the access of the at least one application to the one or more protected portions of the user device comprises:

circuitry configured for presenting at least some information indicating that the at least one application has finished carrying out the at least one service and that the at least one application maintains the access to the one or more protected portions of the user device.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein circuitry configured for presenting at least some information indicating that the at least one application has finished carrying out the at least one service and that the at least one application maintains the access to the one or more protected portions of the user device comprises:

circuitry configured for presenting at least some information to a user of the user device that the at least one application has finished carrying out the at least one service and that the at least one application maintains the access to the one or more protected portions of the user device.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein circuitry configured for presenting at least some information indicating that the at least one application has finished carrying out the at least one service and that the at least one application maintains the access to the one or more protected portions of the user device comprises:

circuitry configured for presenting at least one list of one or more applications that maintain access to the one or more protected portions of the user device and indicating which of the one or more applications has finished carrying out the at least one service.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein circuitry configured for presenting at least some information indicating that the at least one application has finished carrying out the at least one service and that the at least one application maintains the access to the one or more protected portions of the user device comprises:

circuitry configured for generating a report of one or more applications that maintain access to the one or more portions of the user device, wherein the report shows whether the at least one application is accessing the one or more portions of the user device to carry out the at least one service.

21. The system of claim 17, wherein circuitry configured for presenting at least some information indicating that the at least one application has finished carrying out the at least one service and that the at least one application maintains the access to the one or more protected portions of the user device comprises:

circuitry configured for instructing the user device to indicate to a user of the user device that the at least one application has finished carrying out the at least one service and that the at least one application maintains the access to the one or more protected portions of the user device.

22. The system of claim 17, wherein circuitry configured for presenting at least some information indicating that the at least one application has finished carrying out the at least one service and that the at least one application maintains the access to the one or more protected portions of the user device comprises:

circuitry configured for configuring execution of the at least one application to require one or more additional steps to indicate to a user that the at least one application maintains the access to the one or more protected portions of the user device.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein circuitry configured for configuring execution of the at least one application to require one or more additional steps to indicate to a user that the at least one application maintains the access to the one or more protected portions of the user device comprises:

circuitry configured for configuring execution of the at least one application to require at least one additional user interaction with the user device in order to activate the at least one application to indicate to the user that the at least one application maintains the access to the one or more protected portions of the user device.

24. The system of claim 1, wherein circuitry configured for facilitating presentation of an option to discontinue the access of the at least one application to the one or more protected portions of the user device comprises:

circuitry configured for facilitating presentation of a setting configurable by a user of the user device that discontinues the access of the at least one application to the one or more protected portions of the user device after the at least one service has finished being carried out by the at least one application.

25. The system of claim 24, wherein circuitry configured for facilitating presentation of a setting configurable by a user of the user device that discontinues the access of the at least one application to the one or more protected portions of the user device after the at least one service has finished being carried out by the at least one application comprises:

circuitry configured for facilitating presentation of a setting configurable by a user of the user device prior to interacting with the at least one application that discontinues the access of the at least one application to the one or more protected portions of the user device after the at least one service has finished being carried out by the at least one application.

26. The system of claim 1, wherein circuitry configured for facilitating presentation of an option to discontinue the access of the at least one application to the one or more protected portions of the user device comprises:

circuitry configured for facilitating presentation, to a user of the user device, of an option to discontinue the access of the at least one application to the one or more protected portions of the user device.

27. The system of claim 1, wherein circuitry configured for facilitating presentation of an option to discontinue the access of the at least one application to the one or more protected portions of the user device comprises:

circuitry configured for displaying a selectable option to discontinue the access of the at least one application to the one or more protected portions of the user device; and

circuitry configured for discontinuing the access of the at least one application to the one or more protected portions of the user device upon receipt of a selection of the option to discontinue the access of the at least one application to the one or more protected portions of the user device.

28. The system of claim 1, wherein circuitry configured for discontinuing the access of the at least one application to the one or more protected portions of the user device in response to receiving an indication of a selection of the option to discontinue the access of the at least one application to the one or more protected portions of the user device comprises:

circuitry configured for revoking permission for access of the at least one application to the one or more protected portions of the user device during any subsequent instance of the at least one service being carried out.

29. The system of claim 1, wherein circuitry configured for discontinuing the access of the at least one application to the one or more protected portions of the user device in response to receiving an indication of a selection of the option to discontinue the access of the at least one application to the one or more protected portions of the user device comprises:

circuitry configured for revoking permission for access of the at least one application to the one or more protected portions of the user device until at least one subsequent instance of the at least one service being carried out.

30. The system of claim 1, wherein circuitry configured for facilitating presentation of an offer to provide at least one service accessible through at least one application on the user device in exchange for at least one user permission for the at least one application to transmit the at least some protected data from the user device while the at least one service is being carried out comprises:

circuitry configured for facilitating presentation of an offer to make installation available of the at least one application on the user device, the at least one application providing the at least one service and requiring access to the one or more protected portions of the user device, in exchange for at least one user permission for the at least one application to transmit the at least some protected data from the user device while the at least one service is being carried out.

31. The system of claim 30, wherein circuitry configured for facilitating presentation of an offer to make installation available of the at least one application on the user device, the at least one application providing the at least one service and requiring access to the one or more protected portions of the user device, in exchange for at least one user permission for the at least one application to transmit the at least some protected data from the user device while the at least one service is being carried out comprises:

circuitry configured for instructing the user device to display an offer to make installation available of the at least one application on the user device, the at least one application providing the at least one service and requiring access to the one or more protected portions of the user device, in exchange for at least one user permission for the at least one application to transmit the at least some protected data from the user device while the at least one service is being carried out.

32. The system of claim 1, wherein circuitry configured for facilitating the presentation of the offer to provide at least one fitness tracker service accessible through at least one application available for installation on the user device in exchange for at least one user permission for the at least one application to transmit, from the user device and to at least one computing device associated with the at least one fitness tracker service, health-related data personal to the user of the user device while the at least one fitness tracker service is being carried out, wherein the health-related data personal to the user is restricted from being transmitted by the user device without the at least one user permission comprises:

circuitry configured for facilitating the presentation of the offer to provide the at least one fitness tracker service in exchange for at least one user permission for the at least one application to transmit at least one of at least some heart rate data, at least one calendar reminder relating to at least one fitness appointment of the user, or at least one number of steps taken by the user from the user device while the at least one fitness tracker service is being carried out.

33. The system of claim 1, wherein circuitry configured for facilitating presentation of an offer to provide at least one service accessible through at least one application on the user device in exchange for at least one user permission for the at least one application to transmit the at least some protected data from the user device while the at least one service is being carried out comprises:

circuitry configured for facilitating presentation of an offer to provide a download location for the at least one application in exchange for at least one user permission for the at least one application to transmit the at least some protected data from the user device while the at least one service is being carried out.

34. The system of claim 1, wherein circuitry configured for facilitating presentation of an offer to provide at least one service accessible through at least one application on the user device in exchange for at least one user permission for the at least one application to transmit the at least some protected data from the user device while the at least one service is being carried out comprises:

circuitry configured for facilitating presentation of an offer to provide at least one service accessible through at least one application on the user device in exchange for at least one user permission for the at least one application to transmit data that is part of the one or more protected portions of the user device while the at least one service is being carried out.

35. The system of claim 1, wherein circuitry configured for implementing one or more protected portions of a user device, the one or more protected portions including at least some protected data not transmitted from the user device without a user grant of access by an application to the one or more protected portions comprises:

circuitry configured for implementing one or more protected portions of a user device, the one or more protected portions including at least some protected data for which an application must be authenticated to access the at least some protected data.

36. The system of claim 35, wherein circuitry configured for implementing one or more protected portions of a user device, the one or more protected portions including at least some protected data for which an application must be authenticated to access the at least some protected data comprises:

circuitry configured for implementing one or more protected portions of a user device, the one or more protected portions including at least some protected data for which an application must have operating system certification to access the at least some protected data.

37. The system of claim 35, wherein circuitry configured for implementing one or more protected portions of a user device, the one or more protected portions including at least some protected data for which an application must be authenticated to access the at least some protected data comprises:

circuitry configured for implementing one or more protected portions of a user device, the one or more protected portions including at least some protected data for which a user flag associated with access to the at least some protected data must be set to true for access to the at least some protected data to be available to one or more applications.

38. The system of claim 1, wherein circuitry configured for implementing one or more protected portions of a user device, the one or more protected portions including at least some protected data not transmitted from the user device without a user grant of access by an application to the one or more protected portions comprises:

circuitry configured for implementing one or more protected portions of a user device, the one or more protected portions including at least some protected data not transmitted to any other system without a user grant of access by an application to the one or more protected portions.

39. The system of claim 38, wherein circuitry configured for implementing one or more protected portions of a user device, the one or more protected portions including at least some protected data not transmitted to any other system without a user grant of access by an application to the one or more protected portions comprises:

circuitry configured for implementing one or more protected portions of a user device, the one or more protected portions including at least some protected data not transmitted to any other system not under direct control of the user device without a user grant of access by an application to the one or more protected portions.

40. The system of claim 1, wherein circuitry configured for implementing one or more protected portions of a user device, the one or more protected portions including at least some protected data not transmitted from the user device without a user grant of access by an application to the one or more protected portions comprises:

circuitry configured for implementing one or more protected portions of a user device, the one or more protected portions including at least some protected data only accessible to one or more applications originating at the user device.

41. A method, comprising:

implementing one or more protected portions of a user device, the one or more protected portions including at least some protected data not transmitted from the user device without a user grant of access by an application to the one or more protected portions;

facilitating presentation of an offer to provide at least one service accessible through at least one application on the user device in exchange for at least one user permission for the at least one application to transmit the at least some protected data from the user device while the at least one service is being carried out including at least;

facilitating the presentation of the offer to provide at least one fitness tracker service accessible through at least one application available for installation on the user device in exchange for at least one user permission for the at least one application to transmit, from the user device and to at least one computing device associated with the at least one fitness tracker service, health-related data personal to the user of the user device while the at least one fitness tracker service is being carried out, wherein the health-related data personal to the user is restricted from being transmitted by the user device without the at least one user permission;

enabling the at least one application on the user device to have access to the one or more protected portions of the user device in response to receiving the at least one user permission for the at least one application to transmit the at least some protected data from the user device while the at least one service is being carried out;

detecting that the at least one application has finished carrying out the at least one service and that the at least one application maintains the access to the one or more protected portions of the user device;

facilitating presentation of an option to discontinue the access of the at least one application to the one or more protected portions of the user device; and

discontinuing the access of the at least one application to the one or more protected portions of the user device in response to receiving an indication of a selection of the option to discontinue the access of the at least one application to the one or more protected portions of the user device,

wherein at least one of the implementing, facilitating, enabling, detecting, or discontinuing is at least partially implemented using at least one processing device of the user device.

42. A system, comprising:

at least one computing device; and

one or more instructions which, when executed by the at least one computing device, cause the at least one computing device to perform one or more operations including at least;

implementing one or more protected portions of a user device, the one or more protected portions including at least some protected data not transmitted from the user device without a user grant of access by an application to the one or more protected portions;

facilitating presentation of an offer to provide at least one service accessible through at least one application on the user device in exchange for at least one user permission for the at least one application to transmit the at least some protected data from the user device while the at least one service is being carried out, including at least;

facilitating the presentation of the offer to provide at least one fitness tracker service accessible through at least one application available for installation on the user device in exchange for at least one user permission for the at least one application to transmit, from the user device and to at least one computing device associated with the at least one fitness tracker service, health-related data personal to the user of the user device while the at least one fitness tracker service is being carried out, wherein the health-related data personal to the user is restricted from being transmitted by the user device without the at least one user permission;

enabling the at least one application on the user device to have access to the one or more protected portions of the user device in response to receiving the at least one user permission for the at least one application to transmit the at least some protected data from the user device while the at least one service is being carried out;

detecting that the at least one application has finished carrying out the at least one service and that the at least one application maintains the access to the one or more protected portions of the user device;

facilitating presentation of an option to discontinue the access of the at least one application to the one or more protected portions of the user device; and

discontinuing the access of the at least one application to the one or more protected portions of the user device in response to receiving an indication of a selection of the option to discontinue the access of the at least one application to the one or more protected portions of the user device.