Computational systems and methods for regulating information flow during interactions

• US 10,546,306 B2
• Filed: 12/29/2011
• Issued: 01/28/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 09/07/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Elwha LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Elwha LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Davis, Marc E., Dyor, Matthew G., Gates, William, Huang, Xuedong, Hyde, Roderick A., Jung, Edward K. Y., Kare, Jordin T., Levien, Royce A., Lord, Richard T., Lord, Robert W., Lu, Qi, Malamud, Mark A., Myhrvold, Nathan P., Nadella, Satya, Reed, Daniel, Shum, Harry, Tegreene, Clarence T., Wood, Jr., Lowell L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Whipple, Brian
• Application Number:
  US13/374,535
• Publication Number:
  US 20130060625A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,952 Days
• Field of Search: 709224, 705 141- 1473, 715200-277
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking

Abstract

Methods, apparatuses, computer program products, devices and systems are described that carry out accepting at least one persona from a party to a transaction; evaluating the transaction; and negotiating receipt of at least one different persona from the party to the transaction at least partly based on an evaluation of the transaction.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

circuitry configured for accepting one or more elements of personal information entered into one or more fields of an online consumer transaction web page by a prospective purchaser in an online consumer transaction;

circuitry configured for evaluating an amount of money payable by the prospective purchaser which would conclude a payment obligation of the prospective purchaser required by the online consumer transaction upon its receipt;

circuitry configured for accepting device-identifier data corresponding to at least one communication device on which the online consumer transaction was initiated;

circuitry configured for determining, at least partly based on the device-identifier data, at least one geographic area within which the online consumer transaction was initiated;

circuitry configured for obtaining at least one indication of a purchaser geographic area associated with the prospective purchaser;

circuitry configured for evaluating whether the at least one geographic area within which the online consumer transaction was initiated is related to the at least one indication of the purchaser geographic area associated with the prospective purchaser; and

circuitry configured for negotiating receipt of at least one addition to the one or more elements of personal information associated with the prospective purchaser in the online consumer transaction at least partly based on the circuitry configured for evaluating an amount of money payable by the prospective purchaser which would conclude the payment obligation of the prospective purchaser required by the online consumer transaction upon its receipt and at least partly based on the circuitry configured for evaluating whether the at least one geographic area within which the online consumer transaction was initiated is related to the at least one indication of the purchaser geographic area associated with the prospective purchaser.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein circuitry configured for evaluating an amount of money payable by the prospective purchaser which would conclude a payment obligation of the prospective purchaser required by the online consumer transaction upon its receipt comprises:

circuitry configured for determining that an amount of personal information included in the accepted one or more elements of personal information entered into one or more fields of the online consumer transaction web page is insufficient for the online consumer transaction to conclude even with receipt of an amount of money from the prospective purchaser which would otherwise conclude the online consumer transaction at least partly based on the online consumer transaction total cost being higher than a particular threshold amount of money, the particular threshold amount of money determined at least partly based on at least one ruleset defining one or more monetary thresholds for one or more amounts of personal information needed in association with the one or more monetary thresholds.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein circuitry configured for accepting one or more elements of personal information entered into one or more fields of an online consumer transaction web page by a prospective purchaser in an online consumer transaction comprises:

circuitry configured for accepting a set of personal information associated with the prospective purchaser in the online consumer transaction in the form of a persona created at least partly based on a persona-creation ruleset defining one or more thresholds for assigning personal information to a persona at least partly based on a context of the online consumer transaction including at least one rule associated with dollar value context and at least one other rule associated with time of day context.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein circuitry configured for negotiating receipt of at least one addition to the one or more elements of personal information associated with the prospective purchaser in the online consumer transaction at least partly based on the circuitry configured for evaluating an amount of money payable by the prospective purchaser which would conclude the payment obligation of the prospective purchaser required by the online consumer transaction upon its receipt and at least partly based on the circuitry configured for evaluating whether the at least one geographic area within which the online consumer transaction was initiated is related to the at least one indication of the purchaser geographic area associated with the prospective purchaser comprises:

circuitry configured for requiring a credit card account number in addition to the one or more elements of personal information associated with the prospective purchaser at least partly based on at least one indication of the circuitry configured for evaluating whether the at least one geographic area within which the online consumer transaction was initiated is related to the at least one indication of the purchaser geographic area associated with the prospective purchaser that the at least one geographic area within which the online consumer transaction was initiated is not related to the at least one indication of the purchaser geographic area associated with the prospective purchaser, including at least requiring a credit card account number of at least one other person who will guaranty the online consumer transaction via a credit card account associated with the credit card account number.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein circuitry configured for negotiating receipt of at least one addition to the one or more elements of personal information associated with the prospective purchaser in the online consumer transaction at least partly based on the circuitry configured for evaluating an amount of money payable by the prospective purchaser which would conclude the payment obligation of the prospective purchaser required by the online consumer transaction upon its receipt and at least partly based on the circuitry configured for evaluating whether the at least one geographic area within which the online consumer transaction was initiated is related to the at least one indication of the purchaser geographic area associated with the prospective purchaser comprises:

circuitry configured for negotiating receipt of at least one addition to the one or more elements of personal information associated with the prospective purchaser in the online consumer transaction at least partly based on the circuitry configured for evaluating an amount of money payable by the prospective purchaser which would conclude the payment obligation of the prospective purchaser required by the online consumer transaction upon its receipt and at least partly based on the circuitry configured for evaluating whether the at least one geographic area within which the online consumer transaction was initiated is related to the at least one indication of the purchaser geographic area associated with the prospective purchaser, a cost to the prospective purchaser in the online consumer transaction discounted in exchange for the at least some additional requested personal information.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein circuitry configured for negotiating receipt of at least one addition to the one or more elements of personal information associated with the prospective purchaser in the online consumer transaction at least partly based on the circuitry configured for evaluating an amount of money payable by the prospective purchaser which would conclude the payment obligation of the prospective purchaser required by the online consumer transaction upon its receipt and at least partly based on the circuitry configured for evaluating whether the at least one geographic area within which the online consumer transaction was initiated is related to the at least one indication of the purchaser geographic area associated with the prospective purchaser comprises:

circuitry configured for negotiating receipt of at least one addition to the one or more elements of personal information associated with the prospective purchaser in the online consumer transaction at least partly based on the circuitry configured for evaluating an amount of money payable by the prospective purchaser which would conclude a payment obligation of the prospective purchaser required by the online consumer transaction upon its receipt and at least partly based on the circuitry configured for evaluating whether the at least one geographic area within which the online consumer transaction was initiated is related to the at least one indication of the purchaser geographic area associated with the prospective purchaser, the negotiating concluded on the basis of at least one future condition, including at least negotiating receipt of at least one addition to the one or more elements of personal information associated with the prospective purchaser in the online transaction in exchange for a promise to pay using a payment method, including at least a payment card issued by a particular issuer specified by other than the prospective purchaser, within a certain period of time.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein circuitry configured for evaluating whether the at least one geographic area within which the online consumer transaction was initiated is related to the at least one indication of the purchaser geographic area associated with the prospective purchaser comprises:

circuitry configured for evaluating whether at least one indication received from at least one communication device associated with initiating the online consumer transaction which indicates the at least one geographic area from within which the online consumer transaction was initiated, the at least one indication derived from a unique international mobile equipment identity (“

IMEI”

) that has been uniquely assigned to the at least one communication device, is related to the at least one indication of the purchaser geographic area associated with the prospective purchaser.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein circuitry configured for evaluating an amount of money payable by the prospective purchaser which would conclude a payment obligation of the prospective purchaser required by the online consumer transaction upon its receipt comprises:

circuitry configured for evaluating an amount of money payable from at least one of a virtual wallet or a virtual prepaid credit card by the prospective purchaser which would conclude a payment obligation of the prospective purchaser required by the online consumer transaction upon its receipt.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein circuitry configured for evaluating whether the at least one geographic area within which the online consumer transaction was initiated is related to the at least one indication of the purchaser geographic area associated with the prospective purchaser comprises:

circuitry configured for assessing whether the determined at least one geographic area within which the online consumer transaction was initiated is related to the at least one indication of the purchaser geographic area associated with the prospective purchaser.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein circuitry configured for accepting device-identifier data corresponding to at least one communication device on which the online consumer transaction was initiated comprises:

circuitry configured for accepting a telephone number associated with the at least one communication device on which the online consumer transaction was initiated as the device identifier data; and

wherein the circuitry configured for determining, at least partly based on the device-identifier data, at least one geographic area within which the online consumer transaction was initiated includes at least;

circuitry configured for determining, using the telephone number, the at least one geographic area within which the online consumer transaction was initiated.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein circuitry configured for accepting device-identifier data corresponding to at least one communication device on which the online consumer transaction was initiated comprises:

circuitry configured for accepting an internet protocol address associated with the at least one communication device on which the online consumer transaction was initiated as the device identifier data; and

wherein the circuitry configured for determining, at least partly based on the device-identifier data, at least one geographic area within which the online consumer transaction was initiated includes at least;

circuitry configured for performing an online lookup to obtain an indication of the at least one geographic area within which the online consumer transaction was initiated, the online lookup at least partly based on the internet protocol address.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein circuitry configured for evaluating whether the at least one geographic area within which the online consumer transaction was initiated is related to the at least one indication of the purchaser geographic area associated with the prospective purchaser comprises:

circuitry configured for accessing at least one telecommunications carrier billing database to obtain an address at which the operator of the at least one communication device on which the online consumer transaction was initiated resides; and

circuitry configured for determining whether the at least one geographic area within which the online consumer transaction was initiated is proximate to the address at which the operator of the at least one communication device on which the online consumer transaction was initiated resides.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein circuitry configured for obtaining at least one indication of a purchaser geographic area associated with the prospective purchaser comprises:

circuitry configured for accessing a billing database to determine a billing address at which the prospective purchaser receives account statements as the at least one geographic indication of the purchaser geographic area associated with the prospective purchaser.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein circuitry configured for obtaining at least one indication of a purchaser geographic area associated with the prospective purchaser comprises:

circuitry configured for accessing at least one social network database to determine at least one of a city or state of residence of the prospective purchaser as the at least one geographic indication of the purchaser geographic area associated with the prospective purchaser.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein circuitry configured for accepting one or more elements of personal information entered into one or more fields of an online consumer transaction web page by a prospective purchaser in an online consumer transaction comprises:

circuitry configured for utilizing at least one web scraping tool to retrieve the one or more elements of personal information entered into the one or more fields of the online consumer transaction web page by the prospective purchaser in the online consumer transaction.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein circuitry configured for accepting one or more elements of personal information entered into one or more fields of an online consumer transaction web page by a prospective purchaser in an online consumer transaction comprises:

circuitry configured for accepting one or more elements of personal information entered into one or more fields of at least one of a sign-up page, a login page, or a checkout page by a prospective purchaser in an online consumer transaction.

17. The system of claim 1, wherein circuitry configured for accepting one or more elements of personal information entered into one or more fields of an online consumer transaction web page by a prospective purchaser in an online consumer transaction comprises:

circuitry configured for accepting one or more elements of personal information entered into one or more fields of an online auction web page by a prospective bidder in an online auction; and

wherein circuitry configured for evaluating an amount of money payable by the prospective purchaser which would conclude a payment obligation of the prospective purchaser required by the online consumer transaction upon its receipt includes at least;

circuitry configured for evaluating an amount of money bid by the prospective bidder to determine whether a seller of an item associated with the online auction is associated with a requirement for a particular amount of personal information to be provided by an online bidder when an online bid is above a threshold.

18. The system of claim 1, wherein circuitry configured for accepting device-identifier data corresponding to at least one communication device on which the online consumer transaction was initiated comprises:

circuitry configured for accepting a unique international mobile equipment identity (“

MEI”

) that has been uniquely assigned to the at least one communication device on which the online consumer transaction was initiated as the device identifier data; and

wherein the circuitry configured for determining, at least partly based on the device-identifier data, at least one geographic area within which the online consumer transaction was initiated includes at least;

circuitry configured for obtaining, using a country code portion of the IMEI that has been uniquely assigned to the at least one communication device on which the online consumer transaction was initiated, at least one indication of a country within which the online consumer transaction was initiated.

19. A system, comprising:

at least one computing device; and

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

accepting one or more elements of personal information entered into one or more fields of an online consumer transaction web page by a prospective purchaser in an online consumer transaction;

evaluating an amount of money payable by the prospective purchaser which would conclude a payment obligation of the prospective purchaser required by the online consumer transaction upon its receipt;

accepting device-identifier data corresponding to at least one communication device on which the online consumer transaction was initiated;

determining, at least partly based on the device-identifier data, at least one geographic area within which the online consumer transaction was initiated;

obtaining at least one indication of a purchaser geographic area associated with the prospective purchaser;

evaluating whether the at least one geographic area within which the online consumer transaction was originated is related to the at least one indication of the purchaser geographic area associated with the prospective purchaser; and

negotiating receipt of at least one addition to the one or more elements of personal information associated with the prospective purchaser in the online consumer transaction at least partly based on the evaluating an amount of money payable by the prospective purchaser which would conclude the payment obligation of the prospective purchaser required by the online consumer transaction upon its receipt and at least partly based on the evaluating whether the at least one geographic area within which the online consumer transaction was initiated is related to the at least one indication of the purchaser geographic area associated with the prospective purchaser.

20. A method, comprising:

accepting one or more elements of personal information entered into one or more fields of an online consumer transaction web page by a prospective purchaser in an online consumer transaction;

evaluating an amount of money payable by the prospective purchaser which would conclude a payment obligation of the prospective purchaser required by the online consumer transaction upon its receipt;

accepting device-identifier data corresponding to at least one communication device on which the online consumer transaction was initiated;

determining, at least partly based on the device-identifier data, at least one geographic area within which the online consumer transaction was initiated;

obtaining at least one indication of a purchaser geographic area associated with the prospective purchaser;

evaluating whether the at least one geographic area within which the online consumer transaction was originated is related to the at least one indication of the purchaser geographic area associated with the prospective purchaser; and

negotiating receipt of at least one addition to the one or more elements of personal information associated with the prospective purchaser in the online consumer transaction at least partly based on the evaluating an amount of money payable by the prospective purchaser which would conclude the payment obligation of the prospective purchaser required by the online consumer transaction upon its receipt and at least partly based on the evaluating whether the at least one geographic area within which the online consumer transaction was initiated is related to the at least one indication of the purchaser geographic area associated with the prospective purchaser,

wherein at least one of the accepting, evaluating, determining, obtaining, or negotiating is at least partially implemented using at least one processing device.