System and Method for Securely Storing Wirelessly Transmitted Text, Images and Video

• US 20090100106A1
• Filed: 10/09/2008
• Published: 04/16/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/12/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Secure Mobile Records, LLC
• Original Assignee: Secure Mobile Records, LLC
• Inventors: BULLENS, Scott, ANTHONY, Marcus
• Application Number:
  US12/248,680
• Publication Number:
  US 20090100106A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/51 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/063 Content adaptation, e.g. replacement of unsuitable content
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/234 for tracking messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/58 Message adaptation for wireless communication

Abstract

A method for securely storing photos or videos wirelessly received from a mobile communication device includes the steps of (a) establishing at a service provider a user identifier associated with a user of the mobile communication device; (b) receiving at the service provider a photo or video transmitted from the mobile communication device; (c) establishing a time stamp for the photo or video; (d) associating the time stamp and the photo or video with the user identifier and storing the time stamp and the photo or video in a database of the service provider; (e) preventing the user from viewing the photo or video stored in the database; and (f) providing access to the photo or video to an authorized third party. A system for implementing the aforementioned method includes appropriate communicatively connected hardware components.

Claims

1. A method for securely storing photos or videos wirelessly received from a mobile communication device, the method comprising the steps of:

(a) establishing at a service provider a user identifier associated with a user of the mobile communication device;

(b) receiving at the service provider a photo or video transmitted from the mobile communication device;

(c) establishing a time stamp for the photo or video;

(d) associating the time stamp and the photo or video with the user identifier and storing the time stamp and the photo or video in a database of the service provider;

(e) preventing the user from viewing the photo or video stored in the database; and

(f) providing access to the photo or video to an authorized third party.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the user identifier includes at least the phone number or network identifier of the mobile communication device.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of assigning an email address to the user, wherein the photo or video is received from the mobile communication device in the form of an email containing the email address of the user.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the email address associated with the email includes the user identifier and a domain name associated with the service provider.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the time stamp corresponds to one of:

the date and time of receipt of the photo or video by the service provider; and

the date and time of transmission of the photo or video to the service provider.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the third party is a law enforcement agency.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the law enforcement agency is authorized by presentation of an authorizing credential by the law enforcement agency to the service provider.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the authorizing credential is a court order.

9. The method of claim 5, wherein the third party is authorized by being a pre-authorized government entity communicatively connected to the database of the service provider.

10. The method of claim 5, further comprising the steps of:

receiving location data from the mobile communication device, wherein the location data corresponds to the location of the mobile communication device at the time of transmission of the photo or video therefrom;

associating the location data with the photo or video; and

storing the location data in the database.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the location is derived from one of:

a GPS unit associated with the mobile communication device;

a triangulation calculation; and

a user-entered location.

12. The method of claim 5, further comprising the step of automatically deleting the photo or video after a predetermined amount of time.

13. The method of claim 5, wherein the mobile communication device is one of:

a cell phone, a personal digital assistant, a notebook/laptop computer, a camera, and a portable gaming console.

14. A method for securely storing photos wirelessly received from a cell phone, the method comprising the steps of:

(a) establishing at a service provider a user identifier associated with a user of the cell phone, wherein the user identifier includes at least the phone number of the cell phone;

(b) assigning an email address to the user, wherein the email address includes the user identifier and a domain name associated with the service provider;

(c) receiving at a service provider and MMS message or email from the cell phone, wherein the MMS message or email contains the email address of the user and the photo;

(d) establishing a time stamp for the photo, wherein the time stamp corresponds to the time of receipt of the photo by the service provider;

(e) associating the time stamp and the photo with the user identifier and storing the time stamp and the photo in a database of the service provider;

(f) preventing the user from viewing the photo stored in the database;

(g) providing the photo and the time stamp to a law enforcement agency after presentation of an authorizing credential by the law enforcement agency to the service provider; and

(h) automatically deleting the photo after a predetermined amount of time without instruction by the user for the deletion of the photo.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising the steps of:

receiving location data from the cell phone, wherein the location data corresponds to the location of the cell phone at the time of transmission of the photo or video therefrom;

associating the location data with the photo; and

storing the location data in the database.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the authorizing credential is a court order.

17. A system for securely storing photos or videos wirelessly received from a mobile communication device, the system comprising:

(a) a subscription server configured to establish a user identifier associated with a user of the mobile communication cell phone;

(b) a processing server communicatively connected to the subscription server and configured to;

(i) receive a photo or video transmitted from the mobile communication device;

(ii) establish a time stamp for the photo or video, wherein the time stamp corresponds to the date and time of receipt of the photo or video; and

(iii) associate the time stamp and the photo or video with the user identifier; and

(c) a storage server communicatively connected to the processing server and configured to store the time stamp and the photo or video in a database of the storage server.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the processing server is further configured to receive location data from the mobile communication device, wherein the location data corresponds to the location of the mobile communication device at the time of transmission of the photo or video therefrom;

and

associate the location data with the photo or video, and wherein the storage server is further configured to store the location data in the database.

19. The system of claim 17, further comprising a government entity-operated computer communicatively connected to the processing server, wherein the government entity-operated computer is configured to access the photo or video and the time stamp stored on the storage server.